Oral Health Education: A Case Study

Improving the Oral Health of Low-Income School Children in Austin, Texas

For promoting oral health and encouraging low-income school children to adopt desirable oral habits, I intend to implement an educational intervention program that uses a school-based approach to increase oral health awareness and enhance the oral health outcomes of children through active learning experiences (Macnab & Kasangaki, 2012). The two most common oral health education methods mentioned in the literature are traditional learning (TL) and experiential learning (EL). Traditional learning is performed by a dental professional and usually includes lectures. EL is an alternative method that improves students’ learning through a variety of activities such as watching

T. Still University’s Ethical Committee. Moreover, parents of the participants, as well as the school principal, will be informed about the upcoming intervention and will sign and return an informed consent prior to the program initiation (Yazdani, Vehkalahti, Nouri, & Murtomaa, 2009).

School Personnel Orientation

The school principal and teachers will be invited for a 20-minute orientation session right before starting the intervention to ensure that they understand the purpose of this intervention, the goals and objectives of the project, the process involved in implementing this project, and their responsibilities (Macnab & Kasangaki, 2012). Baseline Questionnaire

A questionnaire that covers oral health–related knowledge, attitudes, behavior, and nutritional habits will be distributed at baseline among the participants in both the Hart and Reilly schools; this part of the intervention is estimated to take 20-30 minutes. The questionnaire used to obtain the oral health information is adapted from the Blake et al. (2015) study. This questionnaire was developed by oral health educators, a health psychologist, and pediatric dentists, and the items were developed based on the current guidelines for oral health promotion in children and recent literature. The mentioned questionnaire was pilot tested by the authors (Blake et al.,

The lecture and the PowerPoint presentation will be in the classroom and will include the importance of oral health, the mechanism of action of the bacterial plaque, oral hygiene instructions (i.e., brushing and flossing), the importance of routine dental visits and a healthy diet, the role of fluoride in caries prevention, and the current recommendations for maintaining good oral health. The lecture and presentation will take about 20 minutes (Yazdani et al., 2009).

Brain Storming, Active Discussion, and Question and Answer

After the presentation, the students will have 20 minutes to participate in an active discussion using brainstorming, and they will have a chance to talk about their attitudes and feelings regarding their oral health. Additionally, for more clarification on the subject, the participants will have a chance to ask their questions after the discussion (Angelopoulou et al., 2014). Hands-on Training Following the discussion, using an oral hygiene educational dental model and a giant tooth brush, the students will receive hands-on training in the form of brushing (Bass method) as well as finger flossing (Lai et al., 2016). This part is expected to take 20