Effectiveness of a dental education program on oral cleanliness of schoolchildren in Israel

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a dental health education program providing dental health information and toothbrushing instruction on oral cleanliness. Two methods of instruction, individual and group instruction, are presented in this study. The plaque situation was assessed in a group of 175 children, 11-14 years of age, by the Patient Hygiene Performance (PHP) method at the beginning of the study and at 1, 2, and 12 months. It was found that immediately after instruction the dental health education program resulted in improved oral hygiene home care for the two experimental groups. However, the improvement noted was achieved regardless of the method of toothbrushing instruction (individual versus group). Moreover, it was demonstrated that maintenance of a satisfactory level of oral hygiene home care was dependent upon review of educational programs and toothbrushing instruction and not related to the method of instruction.

An overview of oral health promotion in adolescents

“…Another important consideration is that there was a tendency of relapse in knowledge and/or oral hygiene with time 17,35–38 . Although there were follow‐up studies where the maintenance of improved oral hygiene in adolescents after a longer period was shown 18,28,39,40 , these findings cannot be defined as an actual long‐term success as the results were achieved in conjunction with the reinforcement programmes. Only one study reported a period of 44 weeks with improved oral hygiene status in the absence of any repeated interventions 35 .…”

Training in different brushing techniques in relation to efficacy of oral hygiene in young adults: a randomized controlled trial

“…Studies analysing plaque levels after oral hygiene in young adults are rare (Anaise & Zilkah 1976). Most available studies assess plaque prior to oral hygiene and thereby confound patients' motivation for daily oral hygiene and their ability to remove plaque (Crawford et al 1975, Albandar et al 1994, D'Cruz & Aradhya 2013.…”

Oral Health Knowledge and Habits of Senior Elementary School Students

“…Our review confirmed the equivocal nature of dental health education programs, with methodological problems such as poor study objectives (3-61, little detail of program activities (7-18), and small sample sizes (9,19-25). Subject testing frequently focused on short-term scores (20,21,2631), with poor statistical tests (5,32) and lack of examiner calibration or reliability measure (19,33-38). So, although the studies detail the various types of interventions used in dental health education programs, there is no clear conclusion on the efficacy or effectiveness of such programs.…”