Strengthening Dental Health through School Health Program: A Call for Prevention of Dental Caries among Indian School children

Oral health is essential for general health and well-being throughout the lifespan and is a mark of overall health status. Research and other advances in oral health have led to safe and effective means of maintaining oral health and preventing dental caries. To determine the effectiveness of structured teaching program on prevention of dental caries among school children. An experimental study was conducted among school children, in a selected school at Kanyakumari District. Sixty school children selected using simple random technique for their knowledge on prevention of dental caries was assessed using pretested and validated tool. The pre-test knowledge was 23% adequate and 27% adequate among experimental and control group respectively. There was a statistically significant difference in mean score of post-test among experimental and control group15.4±3.3 and 9.4±2.7 respectively, (p