Executive summary II Acknowledgements VIII Research team VIII Evaluation peer review panel VIII 1. Introduction 1 2. The progress of PDS pilot 5 3. Understanding progress and achievement 10 4. Activity and funding 17 5. The impact of PDS pilots on professional and non-professional roles 33 6. The user and patient experience of dental services 39 7. The future of PDS: Key tasks and challenges 46...

BACKGROUND Access to, and use of, dental health services in Brazil have improved since 2003. The increase of private health care plans and the implementation of the "Smiling Brazil" Program, the largest public oral health care program in the world, could have influenced this increase in access. However, we do not yet know if inequalities in the use of dental health services persist after the im...

PURPOSE To describe the definition of quality, as used in the Dutch literature, and to discuss the policy concerning quality assurance of dental care of both the Dutch government and the Dutch Dental Association. DATA SOURCE Study of relevant literature. RESULTS Quality is described as the degree to which the entire set of characteristics of a product, process or service satisfies establish...

The aim of this review was to describe the background and evolution of primary oral health care (POHC), including the development of an oral health policy, by identifying the resources necessary for oral health services, reviewing the evidence of the effectiveness of oral health promotion and education, providing essential oral health care, and establishing evidence of the benefits of regular d...

This policy brief presents 10-year trends in several key health and wellness indicators for children ages 0-5 in California. These indicators are health insurance coverage; source of medical care; dental visits; overweight-for-age; parents singing and reading to their child and going out with the child; and preschool attendance. The data are from the California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), t...

Practitioners and policy-makers need information about the relative frequency of dental anomalies among children in their region. This study investigated the prevalence of different oral anomalies among schoolchildren in Sana'a city, Yemen. A sample of 1000 private and public schoolchildren aged 4-12 years were examined by the same examiner using disposable tongue blades. The total prevalence o...

This paper describes the program structure and strategies being used by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to promote the utilization of sealants. The program design includes four components: clinical demonstration, consumer education, professional education, and reimbursement. Eighteen Massachusetts neighborhood health centers and six local health departments are participating in th...

The current article proposes a reflection on several aspect pertaining to dental fluorosis in Brazil, based on a systematic review of epidemiological surveys. The authors assess the prevalence and degrees of severity found in different studies and show that in methodological terms, there is a need for progress in procedures for population-based studies on fluorosis. Despite the different data c...

Prenatal oral health (POH) is an important health issue, but dental and obstetrical clinicians are not meeting the oral health needs of pregnant patients. This study evaluates how training contributes to this paradox with a national survey of sixty dental school deans and 240 obstetrics and gynecology residency program directors. Response rates were 53 percent and 40 percent for deans and progr...