The Use of Fluoride Toothpaste in a Primary School near the Univ ersity Dental Hospital

Abstract

The use of fluoride toothpaste was surveyed using a questionnaire regarding 181 primary school children from 1 st to 6th grade in a primary school near the University Dental Hospital. The purpose of the study was to promote the use of fluoride toothpaste among primary school children. The survey was carried out from June to July,2006 using a questionnaire prepared by the Committee for the Promotion of Fluoride Use of the Japanese Society for Dental Health, and the results were as follows.
1. The rate of fluoride toothpaste usage among all of the children was 82.3%. This result indicates that the rate of fluoride toothpaste usage was 7.7 points lower than the“Kenkou Nippon 21”target figure (more than 90%) proposed by the Ministry of Welfare and Health in 2000. Because of this, we must urge increased usage of fluoride toothpaste.
2. Forty-three percent of the subjects used an amount of toothpaste equivalent to size of the 1/3 of the toothbrush head. Also,43.7% of the subjects rinsed their mouth more than 3 times following toothbrushing.
3. Most of the reasons given for the selection of toothpaste were“for dental caries prevention”.
4. The reasons given by parents for not using toothpaste were“never having used toothpaste”,“cannot brush for a few minutes because of bubbles”.
We concluded that accurate and adequ ate information targeting not only parents but also children is necessary to promote the appropriate use of fluoride toothpaste for prevention of dental caries in children.