Authors
Dalma Tábi, Éva Mlinkó, Bianca Golzio Navarro Cavalcante, Eszter Uhrin, Rita Nagy, Bence Szabó, Péter Hegyi, Gábor Varga, Orsolya Németh
Published in
Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education. Pages 10901981261474902. Aug 18, 2026. Epub Aug 18, 2026.
Abstract
Although preventable oral diseases are still very common among school-aged children worldwide, dental caries remains a significant public health concern despite decades of school-based prevention approaches. Oral hygiene habits formed during childhood are essential to long-term oral and general health. This study assessed how well various school-based oral health education strategies improved kids' oral hygiene, during the education and in long term. Controlled interventional studies involving healthy children in school settings were used in a quantitative systematic review and meta-analysis. Teachers, dental professionals, or other educational methods were used to deliver the educational programs. Standardized oral hygiene indices were used to compare the non-educated control groups before and after the intervention. Artificial intelligence-assisted screening was used to improve the efficiency and consistency of the study selection process. While alternative educational approaches showed more limited effects, teacher-led and health care worker-led interventions were linked to significant short-term improvements in oral hygiene. However, over longer follow-up periods, improvements were not consistently maintained. These results show how crucial schools are as venues for promoting oral health, but they also suggest that traditional education-focused interventions might not be enough to bring about long-lasting behavioral change. To achieve long-lasting population-level oral health benefits, program design, implementation, and integration into larger health promotion strategies may need to be strengthened.
PMID:
42610435
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 18 Aug 2026.
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