A community dental health program was conducted in Maki Village (population was about 5, 000), Niigata Prefecture, for 10 years from 1974.
This community dental health program consists of two parts: (1) fluoride mouth rinsing in nursery, elementary and junior high school and (2) detection and immediate treatment of initial caries extending the treatment from the children in low grades to those in high grades.
In 1975, the Association of Dental Health for Children was organized for promoting this program in Maki Village.
A comparison of caries prevalence was carried out among school children at baseline (1974), 5 years after (1979) and 10 years after (1984) in Maki Village, and the caries prevalence of school children in Maki Village (1984) was compared with that in Village S (1984). The school children in Village S had not used fluoride mouth rinsing.
The results were as follows.
1) In Maki Village, mean DMF teeth per children of the elementary and junior high school children was 3.67 (SE=0.11) in 1974, 1.93 (0.10) in 1979, and 0.93 (0.06) in 1984. Caries reduction rate was 75 % for 10 years, and this was highly significant statistically.
The percentage of school children without carious teeth increased from 13 % in 1974 to 56% in 1984, and the percentage of school children with some decayed teeth was only 6% in 1984.
2) The caries prevalence of the school children in Maki Village was lower than that in Village S. The difference of the percentage of children with DMF teeth and of mean DMF teeth was 35% and 69%, respectively.
The good dental health in Maki Village was the result of the 10-year community dental health program of school-based fluoride mouth rinsing, and detection and immediate treatment of caries.
The continuation of this program was supported by the Association of Dental Health for Children.
