د الحان احمد Lec Community Dentistry 4-4-2018 3 rd year Dental Health Education Health Education is a process that informs, motivates, and helps people to adopt and maintain healthy practices and life style. dental professional s play important role in promoting oral health through health education. It is therefore important that dental health professionals understand the principles of health education and the most effective ways of delivering it within clinical settings. It is very important that the health education messages given to the public are consistent and scientifically correct. Education involves the transfer of knowledge and skills from the educator to the student or learner, and through which an individual informs and orients himself to develop skills and intelligent action. WHO define health education It is concerned with change in knowledge, attitude and behavior of people. It concentrated on developing such health practices as are believed to bring about the best possible stat of well being. Knowledge: It is the information given about oral health and how to get benefit from it. Attitude: It is changing in the believes that should influence to change the behaviour effectively. Behaviour: Voluntary movements and purpose acts arising out of decisions taking by individual. Information, motivation and guidance are the objectives of health education in behaviour changing. Aims of Health Education: 1. To inform the general public of hygiene principles and methods at both individual and community level of preventing illness. 2. To create an informed body of knowledge among the community leaders such as teachers, social and health workers. 3. To facilitate the acceptance and proper usage of the medical and medico social measures available for the benefit of the community.
Objective of Health Education: Informing people the first objective of health education is to inform people about prevention of disease and promotion of health. Motivating people informing of people is not enough, they must be motivated to change their habits and ways of living, also human behavior alteration which are detrimental to health e.g. water pollution, drug addiction,..etc. Guiding into action encouraging of people to wisely use the health services and facilities available to them, in order to improve the health status. Oral and dental health status depends on regular personal and group behavior life. Objective of Dental Health Education: To review the dental health education status in relation to high priority dental need and problems. To develop broad guidelines for planning and evaluating dental health education programmes. To consider needs for manpower, facilities and research in dental health education. Health education principles: Interest : If the programs and topics of health education not interest to the listeners(people), it will fail to guide the people to goal (improve health education). Participation of people in health education programmes should be encouraged by health educator. Known to unknown: the educator should start in health programme where the people are and with what they understand and then give the new knowledge. Comprehension: It is refers to the level of understanding, education and literacy of people to whom the teaching is directed.
Reinforcement: It is the repetition in health education in different ways, people are more likely remember it. Learning by doing: learning of health education by doing the new practice not only by hearing and seeing. Soil, Seed and Sower: the people is the soil, the health facts the seed and transmitting media of health programs the sower. Good humen relation: it is the sharing of information, ideas and feelings between health educator and people. Community leaders: leaders are agents of change and they can be used in health education work to educate people as they understands the needs and demands of the community (ex. Teacher). The most dental problems need education are : Dental caries and periodontal diseases. Trauma. Tumors in oral cavity. Misalignments of teeth and dentofacial anomalies. Oral manifestation of systemic disease. Dental health education should be done by: Dentists : they are the most important educators for all dental health programme in their clinics or dentistry institution. Dental auxiliaries: training of dental assistant and dental hygienist to get practical experience in a variety of educational procedure. Leaders in any communities also aids in dental health education ex. Teachers in schools. Educational Aids: 1. Auditory aids: radio, microphones, amplifiers. 2. Visual aids: chalk board, posters, photographs, specimen etc.. 3. Combined Audio- Visual aids: television, multimedia computer, DVD-CD players.
Planning a health education programme 1. Background information: collection of data about the a. Epidemiology of disease. b. Etiology of disease. c. Effective control factors. 2. Target population: their knowledge, attitude, literacy. 3. Facilities. 4. Developing programme plan. 5. Operation of programme. 6. Programme evalution. 7. Follow up. School Dental Health Program The maximum time consuming and the most important task in the field of community dentistry is school dental health program. Because of very high prevalence of dental caries in this age group, school dental health program including dental health education for school children has been on high priority for the dental profession as a whole. One of the methods by which the dental surgeon can approach community is the assignment for school children. The dental surgeon should make his/her services available to the school children. The school is a powerful place to shape the health, education and well-being of the children. It is the most logical and practical place to implement large scale school dental health program. Such programs are very effective and important because of the following reasons: 1-The school children between the age group of 5-16 years comprise about 30% of total population of the country. 2-It is the easiest way to reach a big section of population, during early ages when habit patterns can be more easily formed or modified or altered.
3-The school environment is more conducive to learning, hence dental health education and motivation will be more effective. Purpose of School Health Program The purpose of school health services including dental health services are the following: 1. To evaluate the health status of pupils and school personnel. 2. To counsel pupils, parents and teachers regarding health status findings. 3. To educate and motivate the children for the correction of correctable defects like cleft lip and palate etc. 4. To identify, educate and motivate the handicapped children. 5. To prevent and control diseases. 6. To provide emergency services. Guidelines for an ideal school dental program: A comprehensive school dental program should: 1-Be available to all children 2-Be feasible and administratively sound 3-Provide facts about dental health and dental care focusing mainly on self care preventive procedures. 4- Help in the development of positive attitude towards dental health. 5- Provide an environment for development of skills and technique necessary for maintenance of oral hygiene for example tooth brushing and flossing. 6- In teaching "home dental care" to children "tell-show and do" approach should be followed in which children should actively participate in effective plaque control.
7-Include primary preventive dentistry procedures fissure sealants, topical fluoride application e.g. prophylaxis, pit and 8-Have screening program for early identification, referral and treatment of identified lesions. 9- Correlate dental health activities with the total school health program. 10-Stimulate and motivate dentists to provide maximum dental health care for the infants and children School dental survey: A dental survey is the most effective way of determining the oral health condition and overall needs of school children. It can provide a basis for developing a sound oral health program and for evaluating future achievements. A school dental survey should be planned, executed, and interpreted so that it will be an educational experience for the entire community. The survey should be made by those who are to be responsible for the program, the dental hygienist, the supervising dentist, the health coordinator and the school health council parts of a dental health education program. There are three phases in school oral health program: 1-Dental health instruction. 2-Dental health services (periodic dental checkup). 3-Dental health treatment including preventive procedures. Dental Health Instruction Dental health counseling consists of the procedures for helping children and parents understand the nature and significance of conditions revealed by dental inspections and to solve dental health problems. The child is made aware of his or her physical nature and the need to follow certain rules of health which will correct his or her dental deficiencies and provide for future good dental health. It is an effort to inculcate good habits and attitudes based on self-realization of needs and the importance of meeting them.
There are various methods of teaching dental health in school. Any of the various types of teaching and learning methods can be used during the dental health education program. These are the following: 1. Lecture method. 2. Lecture-demonstration method. 3. Discussion method. 4. Questioning method. 5. Developmental method. 6. Directed study and practice method. 7. Team teaching method. Dental Health Service Program It is determining the dental health status of each child in relation to his or her school groups, his or her family and his or her community at large and providing the dental health services. The various parts of the service program for dental health in schools are as follows: a. Periodic dental check-up, b. Keeping the various reports and periodical statistical evaluation. c. Reports to parents. d. Periodical follow up of program and home care check-up. e. Emergency care. f. Oral prophylaxis. g. Periodical evaluation. Dental Health Treatment Including Preventive Procedures It includes all those treatment and preventive procedures which are to be carried out after the examination of teeth and formulation of diagnosis.
School-based preventive programs include: 1-Self-applied fluorides, these are effective ways of delivering the benefits of fluoride to school children. These include: a-school fluoride mouth rinsing program. b-school fluoride tablet program. c-classroom tooth brushing with fluoridated dentifrice. 2-School-based sealant program: The placement procedure for the sealants is rapid and painless. They are highly effective in protecting the occlusal pits and fissures. 3-School water fluoridation: It is recommended only if the students are coming from the areas which have low or no fluoride content. The recommended concentration for school water fluoridation is 4.5 ppm. Studies have shown approximately 40% reduction in dental caries due to school water fluoridation. 4-Topical fluoride application program: Acidulated phosphate fluoride topical procedure should be applied to children with new smooth-surface caries, a history of high caries or handicapped conditions. 5- Oral health education : The school can promote good oral health and prevent oral problems by educating students and parents, it should focus on : a-prevention of decay through proper oral hygiene. b- Use of fluoride or fluoridated water. c- Good nutrition including restricting cariogenic diet. d- The use of mouth-guards in high body-contact sports.