Evaluation of a practice based preventive programme for adolescents

Abstract

A field study of a practice based preventive programme was conducted over 18 months in a health centre in a socially deprived urban area. The programme comprised chairside education, including dietary advice and oral hygiene instruction, and a therapeutic intervention based on home consumption of a 1 mg of fluoride tablet daily. Participants were 242 boys and girls aged 11-13 years accepting routine dental care. They were allocated at random to a test and control group. Control subjects received all routine operative treatment needed to maintain dental fitness while test subjects received similar routine treatment but with the addition of the preventive regimen. Although the test subject's knowledge of dental self-care improved during the course of the study, this was evidently not translated into change of behavior and no significant differences in dental health between test and control groups could be detected at the conclusion.