INTRODUCTION: Preventive dental services are required to reduce the burden of caries and oral disease in children.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the efficacy of three, as opposed to one, oral health education lessons in influencing the oral health related behaviour and knowledge in Grade 5 learners.
STUDY DESIGN: Cluster randomized controlled trial.
METHODS: Participants: Ten public primary schools (5 intervention, 5 control) in Verulam; 337 grade 5 learners in each arm. Control arm: Viewing of an oral health education video. Intervention arm: As above repeated at three month intervals over nine months. Randomisation: At cluster level; schools randomly assigned to intervention and control arm after consent was obtained from individual participants; therefore participants remained blinded to which arm of the study they were assigned.
RESULTS: A significant improvement in oral health knowledge and practice was noted for both groups after the intervention (p < 0.05). However, the intervention group returned significantly better results compared with the control for all categories except toothbrush ownership, brushing frequency and knowledge of when to replace toothbrushes.
CONCLUSION: Repeated education resulted in significant improvements in the knowledge and oral health behaviour of learners compared with the responses after one oral health lesson.