Abstract
In 2003, the World Health Organization Global Oral Health Program has been refocused under the new strategy of integration of oral health in the prevention of chronic and non communicable diseases. Health promotion is recognized as an economically cost-effective strategy to reduce both the social and economic burden of oral diseases, maintain good oral health and quality of life. The school is an effective way to promote health because it allows access to millions of schoolchildren around the world. Oral health promotion through schools, which aims to develop healthy living habits and effective oral hygiene practices, because of an integrated combination approach of public health policy, health education focused on the acquisition of skills and a healthy school environment, enables an effective control of oral diseases and their prevalence reduction. School-based oral health prevention programs set up locally meet those objectives. At the initiative of the Dental Faculty of Montpellier, a school-based oral health prevention, promotion and education program has been implemented onto a 4 to 13 years old children sample over a four years period. The study of its effectiveness was evaluated by knowledge and oral hygiene practices improvement after teaching interventions, but also by the improvement of the plaque index score. Otherwise, dental screenings realized in the course of this program have led us to assess the caries prevalence of children in the city of Montpellier. Taking into account the distribution of carious lesions inside the population studied, different regression models have been tested and a possible association with body mass index researched. Lastly, this program also gave us the opportunity to evaluate the effect of oral health education measures on the parents of schoolchildren in connection with the transmission of knowledge acquired by the children to their parents and to highlight a possible change in behaviour among these.