Playing games in promoting childhood dental health

Oral health behaviour is a result of a life-long learning process, this process can best be achieved by an interdisciplinary collaboration among dentists and professionals in other areas, e.g. psychologists, teachers and kindergarten teachers. The basis of our research is a childhood dental health promotion programme which consists of a tool of games for children in the age of 3-5 years. After development by an interdisciplinary research group, the effectiveness of this teaching and behaviour modification technique should be proved. This study describes a controlled field study, in which two forms of game play activities were compared to a control groups. The results showed that the use of games and shows aimed at a child's developmental level can be more efficacious than the presentation of didactic information alone.