Oral health assessment for California schoolchildren: are organized dentistry and the California legislature receptive to the concept?

The need to improve the oral health of children in our state has been well-documented in the past 10 years. The concept, however, of intervention by identification of the dental disease process on a widespread basis at the age of school entrance has only recently been advanced. In view of the fact that dental caries remains the No. 1 chronic disease of childhood, the need for intervention no later than the time a child enrolls in primary school may be a way to reduce the oral health problem before it becomes emergent.

The origins of school dentistry in Spain.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, a movement which proposed that dental check-ups and treatment be carried out among school children appeared world wide. In Spain, the leading representatives of this movement were Perez Cano and Otaola. Pressure from odontologists forced the government to promulgate two decrees which made dental check-ups obligatory for school children.

Dental hygiene public health supervision: changes in Maine law.

The author analyzed data from a set of reports submitted to the Maine Board of Dental Examiners by dental hygienists practicing under a new supervision category entitled "Public Health Supervision" enacted in Maine in 1995. The data set included information on public health dental hygiene applicants and projects reported between May 1995 and November 1998. With mounting interest from dental hygienists seeking to serve the population with limited access to preventive dental care, the regulatory board created a public health dental hygiene supervision category in the Maine regulations. The analysis revealed that dental hygienists are seeking and receiving the public health supervision endorsement. Sixty percent of the public health projects were implemented by dental hygienists in public service agencies. Those who addressed a need in their own communities without the benefit of a public health organization accounted for 40% of the applications. Examples of projects are described. The report serves as a summary of three years of data from which to assess future trends.

[School dentistry in Zurich Canton: changes as a result of caries reduction of 80 to 85 percent]. / Schulzahnpflege im Kanton Zürich: Wandlungen als Folge des Kariesrückganges um 80 bis 85 Prozent.

In Switzerland annual examinations of school children in the individual communities and the priority for their conservation treatment have a tradition of more than half a century. Already 40 years ago, the majority of the cantons had passed legislation compelling the communities to organize school dental services. They were not uniformly defined, and the communities had great freedom how to comply with the law, e.g. to contract local dentists for the priority care of children or to build their own school dental clinic. When preventive methods became available, initiated 1953 by daily tablet intake at school, the introduction of preventive activities into the already existing school dental care was comparatively easy. It was mostly welcomed in the face of the very high caries prevalence. Supervised toothbrushing with a fluoride preparation (mostly gels with 1.2% F) 6 times a year has been a standard for many years. It is the cornerstone of the dental health education programs. These cover now approximately 80% of the children up to age 11-12 while for the older schoolchildren, coverage is markedly lower. Caries prevalence has declined by 70-84 percent since the late sixties. The most important factors for decline are listed in Table 1. In Western Germany, pedodontic care was not given priority. At the universities, pedodontics had no recognition as a professional or official branch of dentistry. There were numerous local initiatives to improve pedodontic care. Lack of official support, however, precluded most of these endeavours to gain momentum.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)