During recent years evidence has accumulated in sev- eral Western industrialized countries of encouraging trends in the prevalence and severity of oral disease. In children this has been shown by a reduction of dental caries and an improvement of gingival conditions (1- 5). The reasons for this development are complex but may involve a more sensible approach to sugar con- sumption, improved oral hygiene practices, fluorides in toothpaste, topical fluoride application, and fluoride rinsing. In several countries school-based preventive care and oral health education programs have been established. The reduction of oral diseases in the child population of most Western countries coincides with an increase in the prevalence of those diseases in Eastern and Central Europe (3,5). The oral health care stan- dards in these countries are relatively low, and com- munity-based preventive oral care and oral health promotion have not been implemented systematically.
In Romania a recent nationwide survey showed a high level of dental caries in schoolchildren (6). For example, the mean caries experience was 11.4 defs in 7- year-olds and 6.5 DMFS at the age of 12. In both groups untreated caries constituted most of the caries index. As a result of interuniversity collaborative projects be- tween Romania and Scandinavia, initiatives have now been taken towards implementation of school-based oral health promotion programs.