Children’s Oral Health: The Opportunity for Improvement Using the WHO Health Promoting School Model

Abstract

The health and quality of life of a large proportion of the world’s children are compromised by dental caries and periodontal disease. Those in developing countries and from disadvantaged populations suffer disproportionately from these forms of poor oral health; however, much of the primary disease and secondary pathology is preventable by simple and inexpensive measures that children can readily learn. WHO health promoting schools (HPS) are an established model for addressing public health issues through education of children in a manner that achieves acquisition of knowledge and health practices that promote behaviours that positively impact determinants of health. HPS programs that address poor oral health have achieved improvement in oral health practices and reduction in caries rates among disadvantaged populations of children. WHO has called for more programs to address the “epidemic” of poor oral health worldwide, and the WHO HPS model appears to be a relevant and applicable way forward. Health care professionals and educators who want to improve the health and quality of life of children related to caries and periodontal disease now have an opportunity to collaborate to initiate, deliver, and evaluate community-based HPS interventions using proven concepts, content, and process.

Impact of School-Based Oral Health Education on Vietnamese Adolescents: A 6-Month Study

“…Consequently, there is broad agreement that oral hygiene behavior is important for everyone and should be performed every day from the beginning of the first tooth eruption [ 6 , 7 ]. Therefore, prevention programs that aim to improve oral hygiene and strengthen oral health in children have been developed in a range of different countries [ 8 ]. To our best knowledge, however, there are relatively few studies on adolescents, particularly in low- and lower-middle- income countries.…”

Priorities for African youth for engaging in DOHaD

“…Not surprisingly in a rural environment where village health teams (VHT) are the conduit for much of the new knowledge on health and behavior, 16 children identified VHT home visits to help parents provide better care as the most relevant statement related to ‘Early Learning.’ Children expressed no preference among the three ‘Health’ benefit options; no clear reason emerged in discussion, but teachers in two groups commented that in their experience pupils tend to see themselves as either sick or healthy and that prevention is a concept they are only familiar with for specific health topics that they have learned about through HPS initiatives in their school, such as malaria, and measures to improve oral health and hygiene through tooth brushing and hand washing 7 17 , 18 Hence there are grounds to believe that, if introduced as part of education, programs delivered using the WHO model, health behaviors relevant to DOHaD could be promoted.…”

The Difference of Counseling With Video Media and Hand Puppets to Improving Knowledge of Dental and Oral Health in Elementary School Students

“…Penyuluhan kesehatan gigi dan mulut dapat menurunkan populasi tingkat karies yang terjadi pada anak-anak (Macnab, 2015).Kegiatan penyuluhan kesehatan gigi dan mulut dapat meningkatkan kesadaran seseorang untuk menggunakan pelayanan kesehatan gigi dan mulut sehingga dapat mengurangi terjadinya keparahan penyakit gigi dan mulut (Felton, 2009). Media penyampaian yang sesuai dengan tahap perkembangan kognitifnya akan lebih mudah diterima dengan baik oleh anak, agar pengetahuan kesehatan gigi dan mulut dapat ditingkatkan serta pemanfaatan indra dapat berguna secara maksimal, maka diperlukan penyuluhan kesehatan gigi dan mulut dengan alat bantu atau media yang dapat menarik minat anak (Pertiwi, 2013).…”