With more than 20 minutes late, Joaquim Barbosa, director of Health Center of Espinho, initiated the presentation of the Oral Health Program for the academic year 2007/2008. The director began by talking about the major changes in health in recent times and the satisfactory results of the Oral Health program since its inception, adding that the major objective of this program is the fulfillment of national and European targets.
The Oral Health program involves several entities of the municipality of Espinho, including the Health Center, the Lions Club, the various municipalities in Espinho, several private dentists, schools of the county and the School of Dental Medicine, University of Porto.
The Oral Health program includes three major phases: the cleaning, screening and treatment. In the cleaning phase, the objective is, according to the coordinator of the program, Margarida Albuquerque, "teach children to wash their teeth properly," offering them further, and brush folder. At this stage of cleaning is still frequent sessions are organized for clarification wishing involve "not only students but also teachers and parents."
This year the program includes screening and treatment of three types of problems related to oral health in children of pre-primary, first and second cycle. Among the diseases screened include the caries, the dental fluorosis and periodontal disease or periodontitis. The last, but perhaps the most important phase of the program is the treatment, carried out since 2001. Last year, the Oral Health program dealt with 336 children and 16 other state aid and with the benefit of the municipality.
Margarida Albuquerque made clear that "in general terms, the work is good" and sees it when I found that "children of Espinho, in comparison with the rest of the country are much better. The dream of 18 years ago is worth it. " Since 2001, the Oral Health covers the children of the 2nd cycle, and since 2004 the pre-school because the program initially included only the students of first cycle. The values of the Oral Health Program in 2007 are, according to the coordinator of the project, "very satisfactory".
Over the years, the value of CPO, the index of dental caries, has declined. So, in the second cycle, is 1.3 percent, while the national average is around 2.95 percent. For 2020, the European target is to achieve a rate of less than a CPO. However, Espinho is not far away that goal and still 13 years to get there.
In European terms, Espinho is also well placed at the level of oral health, because the target set in Europe in 2007 proposed that only 50 percent of children entering school with dental caries. Espinho is very near that amount, with caries detected in 54% of the pre-primary.
The discrepancy between the values obtained in the town of Espinho and the rest of the country is again evident when discussing the level of caries in the first cycle. While the program of Oral Health espinhense CPO recorded a rate of 0.7 per cent of the permanent dentition, the national figure is between 2 and 3 percent.
As the screening of fluorosis and periodontal diseases, there is no national or European studies with which to compare the values of Espinho. However, the values of fluorosis suggests that in pre-primary, five percent of children have problems of excess fluoride in the first round six per cent in the second cycle and 28 per cent. Already the periodontal diseases such as gingivitis and plaque, have a total of 28 percent of all children screened.
The first step in the birth of the Oral Health Program has been in the early 90s when Dulce Santos was invited to present a lecture at the Golf Beach Hotel in Espinho, in the context of dentistry. The idea that Dulce Santos had long ago was promoting a program of oral health to children. At the time, according to former secretary of the Portuguese Association of Oral Health, "a series of happy circumstances created an environment for the continued involvement of the program of oral health." There was, first, "an educational interest," but to achieve them, Dulce Santos adds, was "required the collaboration of all entities."
The demand was increasing and the "results were always better." Margarida Albuquerque agrees that the program is now very well organized and to ensure its proper functioning, "the work can not be done without the cooperation of everyone." The coordinator of the program believes that the greater involvement of parents was essential because often the teachers, "who are more interested in the fund, not exploit the opportunity provided by the program" and it lacks many of the consultations scheduled times for children, not thus continue the screening and the treatments themselves.
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