Abstract

Aim: To evaluate an oral health awareness campaign in an adult population.

Design/Setting: Four workplaces in north-east London were selected, matched in two pairs and randomly allocated to test and control groups. Completion occurred in 1995.

Subjects: 98 volunteer employees in good general health.

Interventions: Two oral examinations were carried out, six weeks apart. The test group received the programme immediately after baseline examination and the controls after the second visit.

Main outcome measures: Gingival bleeding on probing (BOP) and probing depths (PD) were measured on each occasion using a controlled pressure probe.

Results: The mean percentage of sites with BOP per subject reduced from 56% to 25% in the test group, while remaining static in the control group at 46% to 48%. The mean percentage of sites probing 4 mm and above per subject reduced from 38% to 25% in the test group and from 28% to 25% in the control group. These differences between groups were statistically significant when submitted to analysis of covariance (P < 0.001).

Conclusions: The study showed the clinical effectiveness of a workplace-based oral health awareness campaign, which is ideally suited to the skills and resources of the primary care dental team