Efectividad de dos intervenciones de higiene oral en la escuela

Abstract

Introduction. Implementation of oral health promotion and oral diseases prevention programs are the key to improve oral health in general population, and for children, school is the best place to do it. The mentioned programs must befocused on changing attitudes and developing skilIs on self care. We know that complex information or structure in the program does not give good results in thisfleld. The goal of this article is to compare two activities in tbe school for promoting communily oral health, in the sense of improving oral hygiene level and analyzing what area in the mouth is better tooth brushed, using the Oral Hygiene Index (OHI) as indicator. Material and methods. 60 children from two scbools in their 5th year (primary school) were selected from a health district in the Valencian Country. We first evaluated the OHI, then we gave them infonnation about toothbrushing helped with big dental models, afler that we evaluated again the OHI; in this moment, the sample was divided in two groups: in the first we controlled toothbrushig during three weeks, in the second one no intervention was done; at the end, OHI was reevaluated in both groups. Results. The most effective activity was oral health instruction followed by model explanation in both groups. Dental surfaces were better cleaned in maxillary teeth and in left surfaces.