A review of school-based dental screenings and the development of a state oral health surveillance for childhood caries in Pennsylvania.

Screening for dental caries is public health activity used to identify children in need of prevention and treatment. School-based dental screenings (SBDS) have been a statutory requirement in Pennsylvania since 1949. Every year children are screened for dental caries. If decay is present, the child’s parents are advised to have the child seen by a dentist. Within this essay I will review the literature on SBDS to discuss the impact of screenings on the oral health of the public.\ud In the United States, the National Oral Health Surveillance System (NOHSS) gathers and makes available state level data on oral health indicators. \ud Pennsylvania last reported data to the NOHSS in 2000, making it the least up-to-date oral health assessment. During the SBDS process data is collected on dental caries of school age children. Pennsylvania does not have a method to centralize this data for surveillance activity. If a state oral health surveillance system can be designed around the existing SBDS model in Pennsylvania, the data collected at the screening can be reported to the NOHSS. More importantly, the Pennsylvania Department of Health and other will have access to data to assess dental caries in children and evaluate oral disease intervention programs. I will make recommendations for the development of a state oral health surveillance system based on Pennsylvania’s SBDS program with a goal of yearly surveillance data reported to the NOHSS.\u