Dental caries among schoolchildren: report of a health education campaign in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

The study describes a dental health education campaign and reports the epidemiology and prevalence rates of dental caries among male and female primary-school children in Jeddah. Over a 2-year period, all 296 public primary schools in Jeddah were visited by dentists conducting a health education campaign. A total of 82,250 children in the first and fourth grades were screened. The rate of detected dental caries was 83%, with significantly higher rates detected among females and first-grade children. Lower social class was significantly associated with higher rates of dental caries. The study emphasizes the importance of health education programmes and the value of school health surveys for targeting this young group.