The Study Of A School-based Oral Health Education And Oral Health Promotion Program

Objective: To obtain information on caries level in urban, suburban and rural areas in different ages in Deyang city, to explore which oral health education method is the best to improve the children's oral hygiene. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the school-based oral health promotion program using oral health education and fluoride toothpasteMethods:1) Students were randomly selected from 3, 6, 12 and 15 years old age groups of the population in urban, suburban and rural area.2) Four hundred children were selected from 4 different middle schools in rural city in Deyang. Subjects were divided into 3 test groups and 1 control group. Children in Group 1 brush their teeth twice a day with toothpaste provided and supervised in school by teacher. In Group 2 seminars for teachers were conducted. Children were accepted education by teachers and brush teeth at home using provided toothpaste. In Group 3seminars for mothers were conducted. Children brush teeth at home and using provided toothpaste. Children in control group were not intervention. Oral hygiene status of all children was evaluated by OHI and GI..3) One thousand and two hundred children were selected from 6,12 and 15 year-old in rural areas. 400 children from each agegroup were divided into test group and control group. Oralhealth education and fluoride toothpaste program were used intest group. Children in control group were not intervention.The caries diagnostic criteria was according to the criterion ofWHO Oral Health Survey (1997). The prevalence of caries,DMFT, dmft and oral hygiene indexes were used for dental cariesprevalence and oral health status assessment. The collected datawere analyzed using the SPSS 10.0 statistical package.Results:1) A total of 1,187 subjects from 3, 5-6, 12, 15 year of age were examined which were from the urban, suburban and rural kindergartens and schools. The prevalence of caries and the mean dmft in the primary dentition in 3-year-olds and 5-year-olds was high in all areas. Children living in the rural area had the highest mean OHI-S scores than living in urban and suburban area.2) After 3 months study, OHI and GI in group 1 and group 3 (2.14,0.69; 1.57,0.46)are lower than baseline(3.04,1.27;2.27,0.82)(P<0.05), OHI in group 2 has decrease but GI has increase(P>0.05). Group 4 has higher score(2.42, 1.13) than baseline(2.0, 0.93).(P<0.05).3) After 1 year study, 6-year-old children in test group the mean dft increase (1.6) had significantly lower level compared with that of the control group(1.03)(P<0.05). The rate of caries decrease was 35.6%. In 12 year and 15 year age group, in test group(1.76, 2.18) OHI-s in 1-year result had significant decrease than baseline result(2.22, 1.73)(P<0.05).Conclusions:1) There was a clear trend of increasing prevalence and severity of dental caries of children in Deyang. Therefore, small-scale demonstration projects such as Deyang containing one or more of the four components of IBPOC should firstly be as model to evaluate the acceptability, effectiveness and sustainability of the proposed basic oral care program.2) The oral health education program had effectiveness to improve the oral hygiene for schoolchildren. Teachers played an important role in OHE program.3) In the school-based promotion program combined with oral health education and fluoride toothpaste, students' oral health knowledge and oral health status had great improved; caries level had been controlled in primary teeth.