Dr. Ali H.

Fahad COMMUNITY DENTISTRY LEC: 1

Community Dentistry: it is that specialized branch of dentistry which deals with the
delivery of comprehensive dental and oral health care to the masses so as to improve the
total dental and oral health of the community as a whole. It is an applying field, it is
concerned with identifying and attempting to resolve problems related to dentistry at the
community level. The community is a dynamic environment, priorities are continually
changing. Social, cultural, economic and biological variables interact in an infinite
variety of patterns.

The 5 points which are applied to each problem are:

1- Definition: to know what is the problem? How it is identified? What are the
characters of the problem? And why it is a problem?
2- Distribution: or epidemiology; in relation to age, gender, region, were the problem is
present. What is the distribution of the problem in the specified population and the
epidemiology and how it is frequently observed?
3- Causality: What factors were responsible for the beginning of the problem and what
factors are responsible for the continuation of the problem, which variables are
involved? And how do they inter-relate?
4- Resolution: What methods or techniques have been or could be used to resolve the
problem?
5- Outcome: What were the outcomes of various methods used and what are the
potential outcomes of the most methods to resolve problems? What have been or may
be the outcome of failure to intervene?

Dental Public Health: Is defined as the science and art of preventing and controlling
dental diseases and promoting dental health through organized community efforts. It is
the form of dental practice which regards the community as a patient rather than the
individual. It is concerned with dental education of publics with applied dental research
and with administration of group of dental care programs; as well as the prevention and
control of dental diseases on a community basis.

Functions of Dental Public Health

It involves a team effort of professional persons like physicians, nurses, engineers,
social workers and nutritionists. Main function of Dental public health is to bring about
improvement of the oral health status of large groups of individuals in wider horizons of

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a city, state or even a nation. It also administers group dental care programs as well as
the prevention and control of dental diseases on a community basis.

Objectives in Dental Public Health

The immediate goal is the stimulation of behaviour designed to minimize dental and
oral diseases.
1. Reduce dental caries
2. Reduce untreated dental caries
3. Reduce the prevalence of gingivitis
4. Reduce destructive periodontal disease
5. Reduce death due to cancer of oral cavity or pharynx
6. Oral health screening, preventive and treatment services to the school-going children
7. To provide facilities for oral examinations and treatment.

Role of dentist in Public Health: The role of the dentist is to stimulate broad discussion
of community health problems by social and professional groups and organizations to
encourage wide participation in designing plans and providing continuous financial
support for an organized community program.

Steps in Dental Public Health

1. Survey: Here the community is to be examined. A survey is designed to determine the
amount of disease in a community and to identify cases that have not been diagnosed.
2. Analysis: Information collected in the survey is analysed to define the characteristics
of specific community health problems.
3. Program planning: It is ultimately the community that makes a decision. The decision
will reflect values that the community places on solving the particular health problem and
the means suggested for its solution and its comparison with other communities.
4. Program operation: When a specific community health program has been adopted, a
varied group of disciplines, which constitute a public health team, may be called for
execution of the program, (program operation).
5. Financing: Community public health programs are financed by funds from the
governing body of the community program.
6. Program appraisal: The data collected in the initial survey serve, as the baseline
against which a program appraisal can be made to assess the effectiveness of the public
health program.

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 The Similarities between Personal and Community Health Care

Patient Community

1. Examination 1. Survey
2. Diagnosis 2. Analysis
3. Treatment Planning 3. Program Planning
4. Treatment 4. Program Operation
5. Payment for service 5. Finance
6. Evaluation 6. Appraisal

Requirement of Public Health Dental Practitioners:

He should have broad knowledge and skills in public health administration, research
methods, the prevention and control of oral diseases, the provision and financing of oral
health care and the study and development of resources.

Dental Public Health Practitioners:

They are the persons who are interested in career and leadership roles in dental public health
or community dentistry. They should be well aware with oral health practice and dental public
health .Generally they are specialist in dental public health or community dentistry .Their main
objectives are as follows:
1. Health policy.
2. Research methods in public health.
3. Oral health promotion and prevention and control of dental disease.
4. Proper working of oral health services delivery system.

Public health impact of dental disease:

To understanding the public health impact of dental disease one should keep in mind that
dental caries is not reversible and not self-curing. Although preventive procedures are highly
successful in reducing the major dental disease (caries and periodontal disease) they have not been
able to eliminate them. Therefore; in addition to a preventive component a treatment is an
essential element of any dental public health programme. The most common disease of the mouth
which the dental health practitioner deals with are:
1. Dental caries 2. Periodontal diseases
3. To a comparatively lower extent oral cancer and developmental anomalies/ acquired disorders
of the oral structures.

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Tools of Dental Public Health:
1. Epidemiology 2. Biostatistics 3. Social sciences
4. Principles of administration 5. Preventive dentistry

Epidemiology: Is the study of the relationships of various factors determining the

frequency and distribution of disease in human community. It is also defined as the
branch of medical science dealing with epidemics.

Biostatistics: It is a method of collecting, organizing, analyzing, tabulating and

interpreting the data related to the living organisms. It is that branch of statistics
concerned with mathematical facts and data relating to the biological events.

Social sciences: They usually include sociology, cultural anthropology and psychology,
the social scientist becomes necessary when effort and effect do not match each other and
want to know why? He helps us in the assessment of the process, our programme or plans
to use in finding out how well this process fits with the socio-cultural system of the group
with which we are working.

Principles of administration: The dentist a leadership role in public health programme needs to
know many of the principles by which large enterprises are administered, these include:
A- Organization: Deals with the structure of an agency and the way people are arranged into
working groups within it.
B- Management: Which is concerned with the handling of personnel and operations in such a
way that the work of the agency gets done.

Preventive dentistry: It encompasses all aspects of dentistry and those practices by dental
professionals, individuals and communities that affect oral health. It has been conceptualized in a
number of ways:
1. Primary Prevention: It is defined as the action taken prior to the onset of disease, which
removes the possibility that a disease will ever occur.
2. Secondary prevention: It employs routine treatment methods to terminate a disease process
and to restore tissues to as near normal as possible.
3. Tertiary Prevention: It employs measures necessary to replace lost tissues and to rehabilitate
patients to the point that function is as near normal as possible after the failure of secondary
prevention.