RESEARCH IN DENTAL-HEALTH EDUCATION AND HEALTH PROMOTION - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

This article presents a review of research in dental health education and health promotion. In the period 1982 to 1992, a total of 57 studie s evaluating the effectiveness of interventions to alter individuals' behavior related to dental health were identified. Combining the resul ts of these 57 studies with descriptive articles published over the sa me period, it appears that dental health education can result in impro vements in objective measures of dental health behaviors and actual or al health measures, but has only limited success in changing attitudes towards dental issues and achieves only short-term gains in knowledge . The limited use of theoretical frameworks, poor statistical analyses , the use of convenient samples and the short postintervention follow- up periods diminish the contribution of this research to the developme nt of dental health policy and the formation of strategies to improve the health of communities.