Objective: To evaluate the process and outcomes of a participatory dental health education (DHE) programme for preventing early childhood caries (ECC).
Design: A one-year intervention programme.
Setting: 21 health centres.
Participants: 520 mothers/caregivers of 6-19 month-old children who lived in a rural area of Thailand.
Intervention: Small group discussion with active involvement in the intervention group and the national teaching DHE programme in the control group.
Main outcome measures: Health centre staff impact evaluation, children's dental cavitated carious increment and stated changes in oral health behaviour.
Results: After one-year, the percent of subjects using a toothbrush and tooth brushing with fluoride toothpaste was 93% and 87% respectively in the intervention group, significantly higher (p<0.01) than the control group (73% and 58% respectively). Night time bottle-feeding, falling asleep with a bottle and sweet snack diet behaviour appeared the same in both groups. The net cavitated carious increment was 3.5 (SD=3.4) teeth in the intervention and 3.2(SD=3.5) in the control group. Health centre staff were very supportive of the programme and suggested extending the participatory format to other child health topics.
Conclusions: The participatory dental health education model was shown to be a practical and effective method for increasing oral hygiene practice, but was not sufficient to prevent the development of ECC. This single intervention in the short term is not seen as sufficient to prevent the development of ECC.