School-based oral health prevention programs are especially important for reaching children from low-income families who are less likely to receive private dental care.
Evidence-based Articles
This articles supports recommendations to seal sound surfaces and noncavitated lesions, to use visual assessment to detect surface cavitation, to use a toothbrush or handpiece prophylaxis to clean tooth surfaces, and to provide sealants to children even if follow-up cannot be ensured.
“Caries Risk in Formerly Sealed Teeth”
Teeth with fully or partially lost sealant were not at a higher risk of developing caries than were teeth that had never been sealed. The inability to provide a retention-check examination to all children participating in the school sealant programs because of loss to follow0up should not disqualify a child from receiving sealants.
“A comparison of the effects of toothbrushing and handpiece prophylaxis on retention of sealants”
Levels of sealant retention after surface cleaning with toothbrush prophylaxis were at least as high as those associated with hand-piece prophylaxis
Webinars, Training and Resources
The learning objectives for this webinar are to understand, through examples from school and community-based dental providers:
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- How to develop a business plan that supports the delivery of school and community-based oral health care services;
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- How billing practices for school and community-based, and school-linked dental programs may support dental services for disadvantaged children; and
- How two states have developed successful school and community-based dental services programs.
Managing and Preventing Dental Emergencies in the School Setting
This program provides the participant with an update on a variety of oral health concerns. It includes information on the scope of dental health issues that affect school children, recognizing general discomfort from dental emergencies, and prevention recommendations.
School-Based Dental Sealant Programs – This is a five-part distance learning module designed to ensure that school-based dental sealant program staff have a thorough understanding of the history, operations, and underlying principles of these programs including history, infection control tooth assessment, etc.
Oral Health Connections – Sponsored by the National Association of School Nurses (NASN) offers a wide variety of resources including fact sheets, videocasts, forums and CEUs to assist school nurses improve the dental health of school-age children.
Infection Control Checklist for Dental Settings using Mobile Vans and Portable Equipment Fact Sheet
