A Comprehensive Oral Health Intervention Program for Preschool and Primary School Children in Suzhou

September 7, 2026 updated by: Jieyun Yin, Soochow University

This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a comprehensive oral health intervention program among preschool and primary school children in Suzhou, China.

Preschools and primary schools in selected districts of Suzhou will be assigned to intervention or control groups. Children in the intervention group will receive a comprehensive oral health program involving oral health education, toothbrushing and rinsing instruction and practice, school- and family-based behavioral support, oral health promotion materials, and interactive educational activities. Children in the control group will receive basic oral health education and educational materials.

Oral health examinations, anthropometric assessments, questionnaires, and other follow-up assessments will be conducted to evaluate changes in dental caries, oral hygiene, gingival health, oral health-related knowledge, and oral health behaviors. Participants will be followed for up to three years after the baseline assessment.

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Dental caries is an important oral health problem among children. This study is designed to establish and evaluate an integrated oral health management model involving children, families, schools, and healthcare institutions.

The study will be conducted in selected districts of Suzhou, China, and will include children attending participating preschools and primary schools. Preschool children in the first year of kindergarten and first-grade primary school students will be invited to participate.

Participating schools will be allocated to an intervention group or a control group. The intervention group will receive a comprehensive oral health intervention consisting of oral health education, toothbrushing and rinsing instruction and practice, audiovisual educational materials, school-based oral health promotion, family involvement, behavioral reinforcement, and interactive or gamified oral health activities. The control group will receive basic oral health education and educational materials.

At baseline and during follow-up, oral health examinations will be conducted to assess dental caries and other oral health indicators. Additional assessments may include plaque status, gingival health, anthropometric measurements, questionnaires regarding oral health knowledge and behaviors, and collection of oral microbial samples.

Participants will be followed longitudinally for three years to evaluate the effectiveness of the comprehensive intervention in improving children's oral health and oral health-related behaviors.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

2040

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Contact Backup

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Child

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Children in participating preschools or primary schools in selected districts of Suzhou, China.
  • Children in the first year of preschool or the first grade of primary school at baseline.
  • Written informed consent provided by a parent or legal guardian.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Children with severe systemic diseases were excluded.
  • Children who could not cooperate with the oral examination were excluded.
  • Children who transferred/moved out during the expected follow-up period were excluded.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: Basic Oral Health Education
Experimental: Comprehensive Oral Health Intervention
Behavioral: Comprehensive Oral Health Intervention

The comprehensive intervention includes:

Oral health education delivered through lectures, classroom activities, videos, and educational materials.

Instruction and practice in appropriate toothbrushing and mouth-rinsing techniques.

Supervision and reinforcement of oral hygiene behaviors by teachers and parents.

Oral health educational materials, including posters, brochures, tooth models, and audiovisual materials.

Interactive and gamified oral health activities. Behavioral reinforcement activities, such as oral hygiene practice and oral health check-in activities.

Family-based oral health education and behavioral support. School-based oral health promotion activities.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
dmft/DMFT
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years

Dental caries: DMFT/dmft index D/d: crown with obvious caries, or softening of the bottom wall of the cavity, or filled due to caries (including secondary caries).

M/m: loss due to caries (permanent teeth) or early loss due to caries (primary teeth).

F/f: filling due to caries without secondary caries.
From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Gingival Index
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years

The color, texture, and bleeding tendency of the gums were observed by probing, and the gingival condition of each tooth was rated as 0-3 points (subjective judgment of the doctor).

Methods: A blunt tip periodontal probe was used, combined with visual examination and probing. The kindergartners selected 4 representative teeth: 51, 61, 75, 85, and the primary students selected 6 representative teeth: 16, 21, 24, 36, 41, 44 (if the representative teeth were not erupted, they were replaced by the adjacent erupted teeth). Each tooth was examined at 4 sites and the average score was recorded.

Scoring criteria:

Score 0: healthy gums with no inflammation and no bleeding on probing. Score 1: mild inflammation (slight change in color and texture) without bleeding on probing.

Score 2: moderate inflammation (redness, edema, light), bleeding on probing. Score 3: severe inflammation (marked redness, hypertrophy, or ulceration) with a tendency to spontaneous bleeding.
From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years
Plaque Index
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years

he dentist applied plaque stain (2% basic fuchsin solution or children's specific erythraea red tablet) to the entire tooth surface, waited 30 seconds, rinsed the mouth with water for 30 seconds, then observed the stained plaque attachment area, and scored according to the tooth surface area (kindergartners examined 4 index teeth: 51, 61, 75, 85, primary school students examined 6 teeth: 16, 21, 24, 36, 41, 44) (if the representative tooth has not yet erupted, it will be replaced by the adjacent erupted tooth), 0-3 points (subjective judgment of doctors) Methods: Smear the whole tooth surface with plaque display agent, gargle with water, and observe the stained area. Each tooth was examined on four tooth surfaces, and the average score was recorded.

Scoring criteria:

Score 0: no plaque in the gingival margin area. Score 1: The tip of the probe gently scratched the tooth surface, and a small amount of plaque was observed (not visible to the naked eye).

Score 2: moderate amount of
From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years
Scale index
Time Frame: From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years

The scale coverage area of the teeth was evaluated by visual inspection, and the cleaning effect of daily brushing was quickly determined. Six designated tooth surfaces were examined: 16 buccal, 11 labial, 26 buccal, 31 labial, 36 lingual, and 46 lingual. Kindergarten-aged children were simplified to 4 primary teeth (51, 61, 75, 85).

0 point: no soft scale and no exogenous pigmentation on the tooth surface

  1. point: the scale covered less than 1/3 of the tooth surface; Or no soft dirt but the presence of pigment stains
  2. points: the soft scale covered 1/3 to 2/3 of the tooth surface
  3. points: soft scale covering > 2/3 of the tooth surface (a large amount of food debris accumulation) Total score ÷6 = individual mean soft scale index DI-S
From enrollment to the end of treatment at 3 years

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Soochow University

Collaborators

Suzhou Center for Disease Control and Prevention

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

October 8, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2029

Study Completion (Estimated)

June 30, 2029

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 18, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 7, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

September 8, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

September 8, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 7, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 86560320

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

UNDECIDED

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant data (IPD) will not be made publicly available. The study involves pediatric participants, and the collected oral health data may include potentially sensitive individual-level clinical and demographic information. Although study data will be de-identified for analysis, sharing individual-level data outside the study team may still pose a potential risk of re-identification, particularly given the involvement of minors. In addition, external sharing of individual participant data is not covered by the current informed consent and/or ethics approval. Therefore, only aggregated study results will be reported or published, and no individual participant dataset will be publicly shared.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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