Dental News - Oral health education by itself is ineffective, study finds

Dental Tribune International

Mon. 17. October 2016

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MELBOURNE, Australia: Evaluating the effectiveness of oral health promotion strategies for preventing dental caries and periodontal disease among children, researchers from the Cochrane Public Health Group have found that oral health education alone, such as classroom lessons, videos, comics and brochures, was ineffective.

From analysis of the results of 38 international studies, the Cochrane researchers found that oral health education as a stand-alone measure, had no significant impact on caries in permanent or primary teeth and surfaces. Nonetheless, some of the studies reported improvements in gingival health, oral hygiene behaviours and oral cleanliness, the review showed.

“There is a general perception that oral health education will change oral health risk behaviours and promote good oral health practices,” commented Dr Shalika Hegde, a research fellow at Dental Health Services Victoria in Melbourne and part of the Cochrane Public Health Group, on the findings in an article on DrBicuspid.com. “However, this thinking is fundamentally flawed, as knowledge gained alone will not lead to sustained changes in oral health,” Hegde emphasised.

When coupled with other measures, such as supervised toothbrushing with fluoridated toothpaste, oral health promotion interventions were generally found to be effective in reducing caries in children’s primary teeth. Moreover, oral health education provided in an educational setting, combined with professional preventative oral care in a dental clinic, was effective in reducing caries in children’s permanent teeth, the researchers found.

Another most promising intervention approach for reducing caries in children—although additional research is needed—appears to be improving access to fluoride in its various forms and reducing sugar consumption, Hegde told Dental Tribune Online. Generally, the findings of this review will have global implications in the area of models of oral health care delivery and oral health promotion, research, policy and practice, Hegde concluded.

The review, which was the first of its kind at an international level, included data on 119,789 children in 21 countries from studies conducted between January 1996 and April 2014. All of the studies reviewed focused on community-based oral health promotion interventions for preventing caries and periodontal disease among children from birth to 18 years of age.

The review, titled “Community-based population-level interventions for promoting child oral health”, was published online on 15 September in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews.

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