UNLABELLED: The school dental screening programme has been in existence from the beginning of the 20th century yet its value in encouraging attendance among children with a dental health need is not fully established. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effectiveness of school dental screening in promoting dental attendance among children with a treatment need and to examine the relative importance of screening, social class and other factors in dental attendance. METHODS: Sixty-four participating schools were assigned to study and control groups using a stratified, blocked randomisation technique. The study group children received the standard school dental screening and the dental attendance of those with a positive screening result was assessed after 2 months by means of a questionnaire issued to the children's parents. The control group children were not, at this stage, screened, yet their parents received the same questionnaire assessing dental attendance over the 2-month period. However, only questionnaires from control group children who had a positive result at a subsequent screening were retained for analysis. RESULTS: A total of 2,321 children were screened, with 980 having a positive result. The mean dmft of those screening positive was 4.85. In all, 664 completed questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 67.8%. Dental attendance was reported among 45.5% of the study group (n=352) in the 2 months following screening. In the same period, 27.6% of the control group (n=312) claimed attendance. The effect was found to be significant among the high employed group (P<0.01) and the unemployed group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: School dental screening was capable of stimulating dental attendance. The strong effect among the lowest socio-economic group shows that school dental screening may be used to decrease dental health inequalities.
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Donaldson et al. (2001) studied this question.