School dental screening programmes for oral health.

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Pediatric Dentistry
• Health Services Research

Background:

• School dental screening involves visual inspection of children's oral health in schools to inform parents of their child's status and treatment needs.
• The primary aim is early identification of oral health issues, promoting timely preventive and therapeutic care.
• This review updates previous findings on the effectiveness of school dental screening programs.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the effectiveness of school dental screening programs on children's overall oral health status.
• To evaluate the impact of school dental screening on the utilization of dental services.

Main Methods:

• Inclusion of seven randomized controlled trials (RCTs), including cluster and parallel designs, with 20,192 children aged 4-15 years.
• Searched multiple databases including Cochrane Oral Health's Trials Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, and Embase up to March 2019.
• Assessed risk of bias, with two trials at low risk, two at high risk, and three at unclear risk.

Main Results:

• Traditional school dental screening showed inconclusive results for improving dental attendance due to high heterogeneity (very low-certainty evidence).
• Criteria-based screening demonstrated a possible benefit for dental attendance compared to no screening (low-certainty evidence).
• Personalized referral letters and screening supplemented with motivation significantly improved dental attendance (low-certainty evidence).

Conclusions:

• Current evidence on traditional school dental screening's effectiveness in improving dental attendance is insufficient.
• Criteria-based screening may offer a slight advantage, and personalized referrals/motivation significantly enhance dental attendance.
• No trials addressed adverse effects or long-term improvements in oral health status; further research is warranted.