Community service-based preventive dental education for elementary school-aged children.

OBJECTIVES
The effectiveness of one-to-one preventive dental education provided by dental undergraduate students for improving elementary school-aged children's oral self-care skills, diet-related knowledge, and diet behavior was tested.


METHODS
The sample consisted of 106 children between the ages of 5 and 12 years who attended the same school. Oral self-care skills were assessed by undergraduate dental students using a tooth-brushing assessment form, and diet knowledge and behaviors by means of a questionnaire. The effectiveness of education (two one-to-one sessions) was evaluated by measuring the post-educational changes in the children's oral self-care skills, diet knowledge, and behavior.


RESULTS
There were significant improvements in the means (sd) of tooth-brushing skill scores (range: 0-18) from 6.2 (4.0) at the baseline to 8.4 (4.1) at the first and to 10.3 (3.0) at the second follow-up. Total tooth-brushing time (in seconds) significantly increased from 76.0 (59.1) at the baseline to 110.7 (74.3) at the first follow-up then decreased to 102.6 (73.1) at the second follow-up. The means (sd) of diet knowledge scores (range: 0-30) improved significantly from 18.5 (5.6) at the baseline to 23.0 (7.3) at the first and to 24.5 (4.0) at the second follow-ups. The means (sd) of weekly sugar intake scores (range: 0-18) significantly decreased from 4.9 (2.1) at the baseline to 3.1 (2.0) at the first follow-up and remained unchanged until the second follow-up.


CONCLUSIONS
One-to-one dental education improved children's oral self-care skills, diet-related knowledge, and diet behavior. The post-educational improvements were maintained for 6 months in older children but not in the younger children.