Oral Health | Clinical and Risk Asessment | Delivering prevention to the community

Delivering prevention to the community
Session overview
Description
This session suggests approaches to promote the oral health of the community. It outlines the rationale for community-based preventative measures, describes the approaches available and provides guidelines on appraising the literature that supports a community-based approach.

Learning objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• list the epidemiological information required to decide on an appropriate oral health promotion strategy
• describe the shortcomings of conventional dental health education
• outline the basis for the Common Risk Factor Strategy
• suggest appropriate settings for oral health promotion for different population groups
• outline the role of a dentist in oral health promotion strategy

Prerequisites
Before commencing this session you should:

• have reviewed the e-Den session Patient assessment/Health promotion and disease prevention/Principles of prevention
• be familiar with 2 important publications: The Scientific Basis of Oral Health Education and Delivering Better Oral Health - An evidence based toolkit for prevention

There is overwhelming evidence that individualised health education approaches to prevent caries by dietary counseling, or reinforcement of oral hygiene procedures in patients attending dental clinics, are largely ineffective [1](read details regarding the reference),[2](read details regarding the reference).

The effectiveness reviews highlight that most psychological theories of health behaviour change used in chairside oral health education, largely ignore the fundamental importance of the social, environmental and political determinants of health.

Dental health education programmes alone will have only a marginal impact and can actually increase oral health inequalities.