Abstract
Dental care for the children living in the mountain village where there are no dentists encounters meny difficult problems. Although administering dental care is difficult, one of the major problems is an insufficiency with respect to the dental needs. Temporarily organized therapeutic teams have principally supplied emergency treatment, but such emergency measures have not effectively improved the oral health status of children in the Mountain Village, because theraupeutic measures can not reduce the amount of the need for dental treatment, and therefore can not bring about an introduction of the preventive guidance most required for dental health care.
The present study aimed at estimating the result of simple and easy instructions for dental health care given to children living a mountain village having no dentists, according to the principle“prevention is better than cure”.
The data were obtained from the children in Shirakawa Village Oono country, Gifu Prefecture.
The children were examined with respect to their oral health status and dental home care.
The results obtained were as follows:
1) A greater decrease in the prevalerce of carious teeth was generally observed after the instruction as opposed to before. The tendencies towards Decrease were apparent with respect to the different tooth segments, and the decrease concerning the maxillary deciduous central incisor and mandibulary concering the maxillary deciduous central incisor and mandibulary deciduous nmolar was particularly noteworthy.
2) The rate of treated teeth and treatment status were improved.
3) The Oral hygiene habits of children have not changed due to the instruction, but the intake times of between-meal snacks were improved.
4) The Dental prevention-consciousness of the mothers and adults who are bring up the children were improved as results of the instruction.
