Avaliação de um programa de higiene bucal em estudantes universitários*

Resumo (EN)

Introduction — The aim of this study was evaluate the impact of preventive and educative measures related to the improvement of oral hygiene in a group of undergraduate students enrolled during the year 2000 in a dental care program established in 1994 by the Community Health Center of UNICAMP. Methods - The educative and preventive program consisted in oral health education, bacterial plaque control and topical fluoride gel application. Up to three clinical dental examinations were performed with an interval of 7 to 14 days, later two reinforcement appointements were made with an interval of 3 months and a final examination was made 1 year after the 29 reinforcement. The gingival bleeding index and the O'Leary bacterial plaque index Wwere registered in each examination, a parameter of 30% was established as the maximum acceptable value of bacterial plaque. The McNemar test was used to compare the plaque index at the different moments, i.e. 1º! examination, 299/ 3'd examinations, 1º! reinforcement, 2d reinforcement and final examination. Results — There was a significant reduction (p= 0.001) in the incidence of plaque index > 30% between the 1s! and 209/ 37 examination. Between the 209/ 37 examination and 1st reinforcement there was a significant incidence increase (p= 0.020). Between the 1s! and 27 reinforcement there was again a significant reduction (p= 0.020). There was no significant incidence alteration between the 2ºº reinforcement and the final examination. Conclusions - An improvement in the oral hygiene in the undergraduate students who participated in the study was observed. Between the 1*! and final examination there was a 75% reduction in subjects that presented bacterial plaque index > 30% and 56% reduction in subjects with gingival bleeding.