[Oral hygiene of children and adolescents participating in the dental examination program].
OBJECTIVE
This study was designed to analyse the dental care needs of young people aged 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 years based on dental examination, assess their compliance with the dental care programme and improvement of their dental status during the nine months following the dental examination programme, in 2007 and 2010.


METHODS
Comparative study of two random samples of young people derived from twenty representative funds of the general national health insurance scheme: first sample of 24,151 young people in whom a dental examination was performed between 1st May and 31 July 2007, and a second sample of 24,768 young people in whom a dental examination was performed during the same period in 2010.


RESULTS
The proportion of young people aged 9, 12, 15 and 18 years not requiring dental care and free of caries increased significantly between 2007 and 2010, in the context of the dental examination programme, and the DMF index (number of decayed, missing and filled teeth) decreased for all ages. Regardless of age, the proportion of children requiring dental care and who completed this care following the dental examination programme was not significantly different between the two years. The proportion of 15-year-olds and 18-year-olds requiring dental care, but who failed to complete dental care decreased significantly between 2007 and 2010. Regardless of age, nine months after the dental examination programme, the caries index declined significantly in 2007 and 2010.


CONCLUSIONS
The dental status of young people with caries who participated in the dental examination programme globally improved with generally good compliance with their dental care programme. The current challenge is to include populations with more severe caries in this programme.
Fanny
F
Traver
Marie-Josèphe du
MJ
Saucey
Catherine
C
Gaucher
D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003729:Dental Care; D019140:Dental Care for Children; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D003753:Dental Health Surveys; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D009910:Oral Hygiene; D010349:Patient Compliance