Abstract
This study evaluates the effectiveness of a school-based, prevention-oriented dental treatment program administered over a four-year period to preschool children enrolled at the Locke Children's Center. The first purpose was to examine whether over time, children exposed to the program experienced significant reductions on measures of tooth decay, restored teeth, and debris on exposed surfaces of the teeth. The second purpose of the study was to examine whether the effects of the program on each of the three effectiveness measures differed as a function of gender. The third purpose was to compare the average number of dental caries observed during each year of the program to the national averages of dental caries observed for American children. This study used a 4 x 2 equivalent groups, mixed design in which the first independent variable is the testing variable with four levels: Preschool, kindergarten, first, and second grades. The second independent variable is gender. There are several dependent measures: (1) the number of decayed teeth, (2) restored teeth, (3) the amount of debris on exposed surfaces of teeth, and (4) the average number of dental caries. These variables were examined over a four-year period. For the purpose of this study, the statistic selected was a two-way, mixed, analysis of variance which was used to test all research hypotheses except the hypotheses related to National averages. The findings observed for this study can be summarized as follows: (1) boys experienced more tooth decay than girls, (2) there was a tendency for tooth decay to increase over time, (3) boys and girls experienced the same degree of restored teeth, (4) over time, children's brushing improved, (5) boys and girls brushed their teeth with the same degree of proficiency, and (6) overall, children at Locke experienced lower dental caries than national norms for dental caries in American children. Specifically, findings showed the program to be ineffective in decreasing tooth decay and number of restored teeth while at the same time appeared to be effective in terms of improving children's oral hygiene.