Development of oral health promotion and service delivery in primary schools, Dansai, Loei, Thailand. Education year 2008-2012

Abstract

This action research aimed to control prevalence of dental caries by strengthening oral health promotion activities and increasing dental services accessibility. It was done in all 65 primary schools in the district. The important activities were 1 to set annual meeting for health teachers to exchange information, to share and self learning, and to honor the school which performed good practice in oral health promotion, 2 to campaign after lunch tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste by grading schools to A-F for coverage of toothbrushes and classified schools with stars for coverage of after lunch brushing activity, 3 to control consumption of sugary snacks and beverages in school and 4 to monitor school referral system for permanent tooth treatment . Results revealed improvement of the strengthening oral health promotion activities. Evaluations showed increased after lunch tooth brushing scores from 3.3 times/week in 2008 to 4.2 times/week in 2012 (full score = 5). The mean DMFT of 12-year-olds was decreased from1.02 teeth/person in 2008 to only 0.78 teeth / person in 2012. The prevalence of dental caries decreased from 44.5 % in 2008 to 38.5 % in 2012. Treated permanent teeth increased from 83.9 % in 2008 to 93.2 % in 2012.