School Oral Health Program in Kuwait

Abstract

The School Oral Health Program (SOHP), Kuwait, is a joint venture between the Ministry of Health, Kuwait, and Forsyth Institute, Cambridge, Mass., USA. This program provides oral health education, prevention and treatment to almost 280,000 public school children in Kuwait. Services are delivered through a system of center- and school-based clinics and preventive mobile teams. One of the recent developments is the effective use of portable dental units for the delivery of preventive care to children in schools without the need for children to go to dental clinics. Preventive procedures performed under this program are the biannual application of fluoride varnish and the placement of pit and fissure sealants on newly erupted permanent molars and premolars. During recent years, the SOHP has improved its coverage of children, with prevention up to 80%. This has resulted in a considerable reduction in treatment needs, which is evident from the reduced number of composite restorations performed under this program during the last 6 years. This indicates that the disease level is on a decline, which can be confirmed from the results of the ongoing National Oral Health Survey on Kuwaiti school children.

Role of school as a supportive entity for positive oral health behavior among adolescents in Ibadan, south-western Nigeria

“…The nding highlights gross de ciencies of the schools in promoting oral health among adolescents. It also contrasts other ndings where supervised school brushing, preventive services and treatment services among other activities are components of the school oral health program [24][25][26]. It is also noteworthy that less than 30% of the schools had bene tted from such programs and about 20% of the students had participated in such programs.…”

“…It is also noteworthy that less than 30% of the schools had bene tted from such programs and about 20% of the students had participated in such programs. This contrast ndings from countries like Kuwait [25] and developed countries where school oral health has gained prominence and covered many schools in the districts and the country at large [26]. Teachers were the main educators of oral health in the schools with dentists coming next.…”

Long-Term Effects of School-Based Oral Health Program on Oral Health Knowledge and Practices and Oral Health-Related Quality of Life

“…These findings are similar to previous studies on Kuwaiti adults [ 20 , 21 ]. Most of the respondents were female, since females are the predominant gender at Kuwait University, and single, since the participants were mainly young (mean age 19 ± 1.6 years) and studied in public schools [ 12 , 14 ] as previously reported [ 20 ].…”

“…The School Oral Health Program (SOHP) in Kuwait was established in 1983 to provide dental education, prevention and treatment for children between the ages of 6 and 14 years [ 12 ], which is consistent with the WHO recommendations about integrating OH services into primary schooling systems [ 13 , 14 ]. These services are offered both through mobile and fixed clinics at the schools.…”

“…This represents nearly double the number of the targeted schoolchildren who were treated in 1992 [ 15 ]. The effectiveness of the project was evaluated through 4 national OH surveys conducted by the SOHP in 1982, 1985, 1993 and 2001 that determined the OH status of children based on biological measures of the children's OH [ 12 ].…”