Community participation movement for oral health promotion In Day care centers, Khanuworaluksaburi district, Kamphaeng Phet province.

Abstract

This study was an action research to develop the community participation movement for oral health promotion in 18 Day care centers in Khanuworaluksaburi district, KamphaengPhet province. The stakeholders consisted of parents, children’s caretakers, staffs of the Tambon Administrative Organizations and dental health personnel. This study was conducted between 2011 and 2013 by analyzing the context of children in day care centers, using AIC approach to create community participation, disseminating of oral health status, defining a development guideline, evaluating the learning forum and creating practice guideline for the next year. The results showed the samples were children aged 2.1-5.2 years ( = 3.6 years) and 73.6 percent of the children had dental caries with the mean of dmft was 4.33. The level of dental plaque was significantly related to dental caries (P-value < 0.05). The Tambon Administrative Organizations launched the policy inhibiting milk bottle, unhealthy snacks and sweeten milk in the Day care centers, which led to decreasing number of the day care center and number of children having unhealthy snacks and sweeten milk. Moreover, there was no milk bottle found in Day care centers. There was an oral health promotion award for Day care center in the district. Every Day care center had an appropriate tooth-brushing areas and toothbrush storage, toothbrushes and toothpaste supported by The Tambon Administrative Organizations, after lunch tooth brushing program, fresh fruit for dessert after lunch 3-5 days/week, learning corner, and innovation for oral health promotion such as snack bank. Empowerment the caretakers for educating parents by various methods. The oral hygiene of children had increased from 51.8 percent to 70.0 percent.