Dental public health
The pattern for such programs in the past was a dental practitioner's annual visit to a school to lecture and to demonstrate proper tooth-brushing techniques.
[6] Tooth decay is, however, easily prevented by reducing acid demineralisation caused by the remaining dental plaque left on teeth after brushing.
Risk factors for tooth decay include physical, biological, environmental, behavioural, and lifestyle-related factors such as high numbers of cariogenic bacteria, inadequate salivary flow, insufficient fluoride exposure, poor oral hygiene, inappropriate methods of feeding infants, and poverty.
[8] Gum diseases gingivitis and periodontitis are caused by certain types of bacteria that accumulate in remaining dental plaque.
Neutralising acids after eating and at least twice a day brushing with fluoridated toothpaste will assist preventing dental decay.
Stimulating saliva flow assists in the remineralisation process of teeth, this can be done by chewing sugar free gum.
Research into the effects of fluoride on teeth began due to the concern about the presence of dental fluorosis.
From this point, many clinical trials were conducted [14] Following these studies, the recognition of the positive outcome on dental tissues became clear and projects in water fluoridation became of significant importance.
[citation needed] The development of artificial water fluoridation began in 1945 in Grand Rapids, Michigan followed by Newburgh, New York and Evanston, Illinois.
Oral health promotion is part of both government and private incentives to create a healthier and better educated generation of individuals.
[23] Oral health promotion focuses on individual behaviour, socioeconomic status and environmental factors.
[23] Ways in which oral health promotion can minimise the effects of these determinants include: These factors are also influenced by sociopolitical considerations that are outside the control of most individuals.
There is low-certainty evidence that school screening initiatives with incentives attached, such as free treatment, may be helpful in improving oral health of children.
[29] The favorable effect of the increased level of dental health education may be counteracted by nutritional behavior, especially sweets intake and low attendance of regular dental office check-ups and insufficient oral health practices (tooth brushing) generating a still increased caries prevalence and DMFT index in adolescents.
Overall, the evidence showed low certainty that combining oral health education alongside supervised tooth-brushing or professional intervention would reduce dental caries in children (from birth to 18).
[31] To find out if a child is eligible, families can contact the Department of Human Services [32] In 1985 three dentists with the sponsorship of Colonel Joy Wheeler Dow, Jr., implemented an Oral Health Program in the Autonomous Region of Madeira with the aid of five assistants.
The four-year program reached 15,000 children around the main island and Porto Santo and it included Oral Hygiene Instruction classes, informative literature including films, fortnightly fluoride mouth-rinse and daily fluoride tables with the collaboration of the school teachers.
During this period a study was undertaken using the World Health Organization (WHO) Combined Oral Health Assessment (CPTIN) plan resulting in the final report where it was found that there had been a decrease of 44% in the need for fillings, 40% decrease in the need for extractions, whilst the caries free children population grew from the initial 1% to 5%.
The benefit of implementing health insurance is to assist a large number of people with similar risks by sharing funding.
[34] For more information, you can access the Around Good People fact sheet Archived 2017-03-15 at the Wayback Machine The earliest known person identified as a dental practitioner dates back to 2600BC, an Egyptian scribe states that he was ‘the greatest of those who deal with teeth ad of physicians’[citation needed]
