ABSTRACT
Background: School based dental screening has been a popular public health intervention. However, literature provides contrasting evidence regarding effectiveness of such programs on the utilization of dental services. Objectives: We designed this review to understand the differences in dental attendance rates of children below 15 years of age, receiving a school based dental screening versus those not receiving it. Material and Methods: The standard methodological procedures prescribed by The Cochrane Collaboration for Systematic review and meta-analysis was employed. An electronic (MEDLINE via PUBMED, Cochrane trial registry, and Google scholar) and a manual search (2016) were made to identify studies. Results: Five studies met the inclusion criteria, covering a population of 28208 school children of which 21447 were included in the meta-analysis. The review concludes that school based dental screening marginally increases the dental attendance by 16 percent as opposed to a non-screening group (RR 1.16 (95% CI 1.11, 1.21). The quality of evidence was found to be low. Conclusions: There is evidence of marginally increased dental attendance rate of 16 % following screening. As the quality of evidence was found to be low, the results of this review may be used with caution.
ABSTRACT
Introduction and objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the relations among: age, reasons for dental appointment, systemic conditions, use of medicines and periodontal disease, in patients assisted in the Periodontal Clinic at the Dental School of the Center of Higher Education of Campo Gerais (short Cescage - Ponta Grossa, Brazil), during 2007-2009. Material and methods: A total of 183 dental files were obtained and 100 were included in the study. The following tests were applied: student t, Mann-Whitney (quantitative variables) and Qui-square (%2) (qualitative variables). The level of significance adopted was of 5%. Results: The main reason for dental appointment was not the need of periodontal treatment, but tooth pain and dental aesthetics. In relation to the systemic condition, women presented more systemic alterations in comparison with men, showing higher prevalence of diabetes and hypertension. In relation to the drugs, only 20% of men used systemic drugs, while 52% of women used them. Dental plaque showed similar percentage between genders, but bleeding on probing was lower in women. Concerning to periodontal disease the prevalence of pocket probing depth (until 4 mm) was equivalent in both genders, and the buccal area of the mouth showed a higher prevalence than the labial area. Considering periodontal pocket probing depth (7 mm or more), the result was similar in both genders and the buccal area of the mouth showed higher prevalence that the labial area. Conclusion: Anamnesis and clinicai examination accomplished in the periodontal clinic can establish some demographic, clinical and systemic disease patterns related to the presence of the periodontal disease in patients seeking treatment at dental school clinics.