Effectiveness of community preventive programs on improving oral health.

Although sizable community efforts in the United States have been made to educate children and adults about periodontal disease and its control, valid inferences regarding their effectiveness cannot be made because, for the most part, invalid methods of evaluation have been used. Confusion about these methods may exist because there has been little conviction that the available methods of control will stop the progress of periodontal pathology. Many recommended oral hygiene practices are probably applicable only to certain motivated individuals. An effective, comprehensive community-program for the prevention of periodontal disease remains to be developed. It is unlikely that sufficient sums of money and personnel could be diverted from the budgets of lesser-developed countries to initiate mass oral hygiene programs. Therefore, it appears that, organized community efforts appear to be promising only for the control of dental caries. However, it must be remembered that community fluoridation may not be applicable in many countries. Therefore, new strategies and vehicles to bring fluorides to all segments of the world's population are needed.