One can observe a relationship between traumatic dental injury and its impact on quality-of-life. Children and adolescents who suffered traumatic dental injury showed negative experiences and greater functional and emotional impact.

This study aimed to verify the long-term effects of an oral-health-promotion program for 203 schoolchildren 24 months after the interruption of educational activities. They were clinically examined to assess dental plaque and gingival bleeding at baseline, immediately after the educational phase (EP), and 12 and 24 months after withdrawal of the EP. The mean plaque scores gradually increased after interruption of the EP,and in the last assessment they were higher than the baseline scores, but similar to the ones verified 12 months after withdrawal of the EP. The mean gingival bleeding scores were maintained after interruption of the EP. However, it was verified that in the last assessment they were lower than the previous evaluations. And, in all analyses, it was far from the baseline mean scores (P < 0.05). Analysis indicated that the duration of the program favorably influenced its outcome.

Summary Objectives: The need to evaluate the reliability of a clinical index before using it as a research tool is clearly recognized. Therefore the aim of this study was to evaluate whether a new calibration method by means of photographs would be useful for assessing the examiners’ reliability in the interpretation of a plaque index. Methods: Nine children were randomly recruited from a public school in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Two trained examiners evaluated these children for dental plaque, in a classroom environment, in order to record plaque scores. The children’s teeth were dyed and colored photographs were taken of all tooth surfaces using a camera, mouth mirrors and lip retractors. The photographs were evaluated to select and identify the best visible tooth surfaces, and the final sample consisted of 343 tooth surfaces. One week after the clinical examination, both examiners scored the tooth surfaces from the photographs according to the index used. The intra and inter-examiner agreements were measured by intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) for individual mean scores and for tooth surfaces scores. Results: The data showed an excellent agreement (ICC > 0.80) between clinical and photographic examinations, for both examiners, both for tooth surface and patient analysis. The statistics also demonstrated excellent (ICC > 0.80) inter-examiner agreement on clinical and photographic examinations. Conclusion: The method seems to be an effective technique to evaluate the reliability of the plaque index, improving the reproducibility of epidemiological studies.

The biofilm control is a considerable factor in the prevention and treatment of oral diseases as caries and periodontal disease. However, according to the literature, the collective programs show frustrating results at long-term due to difficulty to change the behavior of the participant individuals. Therefore, taking into consideration the model of the dental practice in Brazil, where the population has an oral health needfulness, the purpose of this study is to introduce different strategies that allow the accomplishment of collective programs, so that they succeed in the promotion of the oral health either in individual or collective level.

The purpose of this study was to implement an Oral Health Promotion Program (OHPP) and check its effectiveness using different indicators at two different times (birth to 10 months after the OHPP). The sample consisted of 325 healthy children (6.1 and 11.3 years old). The results indicated that there was a statistically significant reduction measured by the three indicators (p<0.001). The effectiveness of the OHPP was positive and clearly shown by the oral health indicators used.