Analysis of dental health education activity carried out by dentistry students

During their career, students of dentistry acquire techniques which they will employ later on their patients. Since the health of these patients and society itself cannot be left exclusively to the professional activity of these future dentist, an experimental extra-class experience was carried out with pupils from primary and secondary schools. The students gave the pupils presentations on Nutrition, Calcium and Phosphorus and Caries. The aim of this study was to evaluate: a) the influence of society on the teaching process, and training during the first university year, and b) epidemiologic aspects. Our results indicated that 32.2% of the primary and 15.6 % of the secondary school pupils were unfamiliar with the disciplines presented by the students. According to the evaluations 78.1% of the primary and 94.0% of the secondary school pupils achieved or exceeded the minimum requirements considered necessary for correct nutritional and oral health habits. Evaluations of the students demonstrated that the students who had participated in the activity did not have knowledge superior to that of non-participating students. Therefore this experience can be considered an exercise in utilizing human resources for primary prevention rather than an innovative methodology which improves the teaching-learning process. It also seems recommendable in view of the low cost of the exercise.