Prevention and hygiene education

Prevention and hygiene education

Introduction

Oral health requires healthy gums, healthy teeth that are insensitive to thermal and chemical variations, possibly well aligned, in a mouth where dental brushing is established at least twice a day. The most common conditions are caries and gingivopathies. 

There are other less common oral conditions including dentofacial anomalies.

1. Health education in oral health:

GOALS

Its objective is: 

• To establish in children the twice-daily reflex of technically correct  dental brushing .
• Notions of oral health education must be provided to students by the dental surgeon in collaboration with the teacher, including sessions on learning how to brush teeth in schools according to a previously defined methodology and frequency. 
• Information and awareness of oral and dietary hygiene must be extended to the child’s entire environment through social communication, including the mandatory involvement of parents’  associations .
• Health education must be introduced into the educational programmes of basic education. 

the goal of health education

The child must: 

• Know the importance of healthy teeth and the triggers of caries and periodontal disease 
• Brush your teeth properly at least twice a day 
• Correct your eating behavior , particularly with regard to carbohydrates and soft, fast food. 
• Treat cavities as soon as they appear and gingivitis as soon as it sets in

2. Health education means:

2.1. Primary prevention

It is the set of measures aimed at preventing the appearance of a disease . 

• It focuses on early detection and health education to promote tooth brushing and food hygiene (which will be carried out in schools). 
• Any minor condition (cavities and gingivitis) should be screened from the age of six for early treatment, as well as any other condition. 

It includes:

• Oral hygiene.
• Food hygiene.
• Fluorine.
• The sealants.
• Early detection. 

1. Oral hygiene

It is part of the child’s personal hygiene , and in the same way, we must induce a change in behavior in him: the child must acquire healthy behavior with regard to his oral health as for the rest of the body, by learning to brush his teeth correctly and regularly. 

2. Food hygiene

It involves correcting bad eating habits and developing advice aimed at eliminating the most cariogenic foods while promoting a balanced diet. 

3. Fluoride

Although the preventive effect of fluoride on dental caries is no longer in doubt, its endogenous use should only be carried out after a fluoride assessment of the daily fluoride intake through water and food. 

Therefore, it will only be possible to implement local or regional
mass fluoridation programmes
based on precise epidemiological information both in terms of the oral health of the population and the fluoride concentration in drinking water supplies. Its prescription must be subject to regulation. 

It goes without saying that areas endemic for fluorosis cannot be affected by such a programme.

4. Sealants (or preventive sealing of furrows) 

Knowing that it would involve sealing at least 8 molars and premolars of each of the 7 million students with composite or glass ionomer, or 56 million sealant applications, it is necessary to carefully assess the human and material resources to be implemented before beginning an operation of such magnitude. 

5. Early detection

First degree caries can only be detected by the dentist. This is the stage at which intervention is necessary because the treatment is painless and much less expensive.
In light of these data, it appears that an oral health education program focusing on: oral hygiene, food hygiene, and early detection is the most appropriate. 

It is more easily achievable and, above all, it is the basis of any other prophylactic program. 

2-.2.Secondary prevention 

• Secondary prevention is the interception of a condition , in this case: 
• Intercept caries as soon as it appears and gingivitis as soon as it sets in. 
• Beyond the screening of a disease as in medicine, it requires interceptive methods of dentistry which can only be carried out by a dental surgeon. 

This interceptive phase stops at the conservative treatment of amelopathy (first degree caries) and dentinopathy (second degree caries).

3- TARGET POPULATION 

Children enrolled in primary education. The target classes chosen are: 

1. 1st AF – ^2nd AF – 4th ^AF – ^7th AF and 1st ^{AS corresponding respectively to the} following ages: 6 years, 7 years, 9 years, 12 years and 15 years.