Restorative dental care of children participating in a school based plaque control programme in London

The effect of a school based plaque control programme on restorative dental treatment was investigated over a 4-yr period. The programme consisted of fortnightly visits to a hygienist during term time for oral hygiene reinforcement and prophylaxis during the first 3 yr. The subjects were girls aged 11-12 yr at baseline and all attended the same school; the present study was concerned with the subjects in both the experimental and control groups who attended the dentist based in the school for restorative care (n = 147 for the first year falling to 108 for the 4-yr period). During the first year, the subjects treated from the experimental group received significantly fewer restorations than the subjects treated from the control group. This significant difference was not seen in the subsequent 3 yr and the mean number of restorations provided over the 4-yr period in the experimental and control groups respectively was 5.45 and 6.67. The corresponding 4 yr DFS increments for these groups were 5.56 and 5.52. The anomalous first finding appeared to have been due more to decayed surfaces being present in the control group at baseline. The results for restorative care generally confirmed the ineffectiveness of the programme in preventing caries and the relatively low caries increments reflect the reductions in caries experience occurring in similar communities during the period of the study.