Effectiveness of methods of teaching dental health to 9- to 10-year-old schoolchildren in the United Kingdom.

Dental health education employing five different teaching methods was given to classes of 9- to 10-year-old schoolchildren. A control class received no teaching. The dental health knowledge of the classes was assessed before teaching, and immediately, 1 week and 3 months after teaching by the use of a questionnaire. All methods resulted in a variable increase in marks immediately after teaching. This was followed by a fall in marks for each class over the 3-month period. The poster and pack methods of presenting information, overall, had little or no effect on the recall of information. The talk, visual aids and project methods all significantly increased dental health knowledge for the 3-month period.