Abstract
Preventive dentistry is particularly important for disabled children. Tooth brushing at home is therefore, essential. However, most of disabled children tend not to be cooperative with respect to tooth brushing at home. Brushing in home would be thereby a great burden on their parents. We have carried out a project of oral health care consisting of oral examination, instruction in tooth brushing, and individual consultation at day care facilities for disabled children twice a year for 17 years. There are two keynotes in this project, that is forming a habit of tooth brushing at home and having a family dentist. To investigate the effect of our oral health care instruction, we made a follow-up survey by sending out a questionnaire through the mail to 144 guardians who had been given oral health care instructions when they went to the day care facility and whose children were within 3 years after leaving the facility. The contents of questionnaire included whether the children brushed teeth every day and the degree of cooperation during tooth brushing, and whether they had a family dentist or not. As the results, the ratio of children who brushed their teeth every day after leaving the facility was 86%, which was almost the same ratio as that during the period of time the facility was visited. In addition, the degree of cooperation during brushing tended to improve after leaving the facility. The ratio of those who had a family dentist after leaving the facility was 81 %, which increased from 57% before leaving the facility. It was therefore concluded that our oral health care instruction from early childhood was effective to some extent. We would like to examine the project refer to the results of this study. Based on the present results, it was found that the habit of tooth brushing was firmly established at the time of leaving the facility, and that the number of people having a family dentist had increased, the significance of oral health instruction.
