The rural dental health program: the effect of a school-based, dental health education program on children's utilization of dental services.

Eighteen-hundred rural children ages five through thirteen were randomly assigned for dental treatment to a school-based practice, and to private practitioners in the community. Simultaneously, five of the nine public schools attended by the children offered an enriched program of dental education while the remaining schools taught the regular health education courses. All children participated in a school based fluoride program and their dental treatment was provided without charge. Data indicating how the children utilized dental services were collected over the three-year treatment phase of the study. Evidence from the third treatment year indicates that children assigned to the school based practice who also attended a school offering enriched dental health education used dental services on a more regular basis than children in the other three groups. Evidence obtained from log-linear modeling supports the hypothesis that dental health education had a positive effect on children's utilization of dental service.