Irish oral health services guideline initiative. Oral health assessment: Best practice guidance for providing an oral health assessment programme for school-aged children in Ireland. 2012

摘要

In the Republic of Ireland, the Health Service Executive (HSE), which is the national authorityudresponsible for health and personal social services, has statutory responsibility to make dentaludservices available, free of charge, to children under the age of 16.2-5 The focus of this guideline is onudthe oral health assessment of school-aged children as part of these state-funded services. Theseudservices are currently provided by the HSE Public Dental Service. In the Republic of Ireland, theudminimum age at which a child can start school is four, although most children are age five at schooludentry. The upper age limit for entitlement to state-funded oral health services for children is 15. In thisudguideline, the terms „school-aged children‟ or „school children‟ cover the age range 4–15 years, andudwe use „age 5‟ when referring to children in Junior Infants class. The term „oral health assessment‟udrefers to the process of identifying children who would benefit from dental services.udThis guideline is the fourth in a series of evidence-based guidelines developed for the HSE PublicudDental Service and should be read with reference to the other guidelines in the series.6-8 While thisudguideline deals specifically with school-aged children, guidance on the early identification of highudcaries risk preschool children is contained in the guideline Strategies to prevent dental caries inudchildren and adolescents.7 Recommendations on the use of topical fluorides and pit and fissureudsealants for caries prevention can be found in the corresponding guidelines.