The oral health educational strategy was started by
activities during three semesters (18 months), as follows:
Activities at the first semester
Baseline interviews with students and teachers were
undertaken by 5 undergraduate and 3 postgraduate dental
students and one dental hygienist, who were previously
trained and calibrated. A structured questionnaire developed
by Todescan and Sima19 was adapted for this study, which
included sociodemographic characteristics and information
on the students´ knowledge on oral health care, source of
information, reasons for oral hygiene; their oral health care
practices: oral hygiene habits (tooth brushing, use of
dentifrice, flossing) and use of professional dental services
(dental visits and professional fluoride application). A similar
protocol was designed to interview the students’ mothers
and teachers