Abstract
“The Dental Health Promoti on Class for Infants and Parents” is one of the services at Fukuoka Health Promotion Center. The class is aimed at pre-school children and their parents in the city of Fukuoka, and provides dental examination, dental counseling, dental health education, and topical fluoride application for the children. Visitors are recommended to have family dentists to manage and promote their dental health after the class.
The part 1 survey revealed the den tal background of the visitors as well as the information about the age, purposes of visit, and dental counseling etc. Based on that data, the contents of the class were re-evaluated, and the future direction of the class was discussed.
The questionnaires were sent to 1007 parents who partic ipated the class to survey the behavior modification on dental health after the class.348 answers received were analyzed. The results showed an improvement in homecare such as tooth-brushing habit and dietary habit among class participants.78.7% of the class participants who answered the questionnaire visited dental offices with the purposes of topical fluoride application, recall check-up, and fissure sealant etc. Also, most of those visited within 6 months after the class. The children who visited pediatric dental offices (64.2%) were found to obtain more positive and multiple preventive approaches when compared to those who visited general-pediatric dental offices. The dental health behavior of the parents was also improved through the class.
It was eva luated that the dental health education in the class was sufficiently effective to improve the dental health behavior of the participants, and the class could be the start of having family dentists.
