A 3-year community-based periodontal disease prevention programme for adults in a developing nation.

A field trail of a community programme for improving periodontal health of adults was carried out in a geographically remote, unsophisticated rural population in the South Pacific islands of Tonga. The 3-year project (1986-89) involved three village communities, each with a population of approximately 1200. Village N received supplies of toothbrushes and toothpaste without charge, health education (videos, talks, posters) and periodic dental scaling (ultrasonic). Village K received the same as N except that dental scaling was not provided. Village E received none of the services provided to the villages N and K. Baseline and final examinations of 20-44-year olds showed that unsupervised self-care promoted at the community level, when supplemented with periodic removal of subgingival calculus, significantly improved periodontal health. Improvement was age dependent.