While wider public health- and population-based programmes such as the Childsmile programme are
important to develop and maintain there are still marked differences in the use and delivery of preventive
approaches in dental practice. Consequently, there is still a need to review and update the evidence in
order to clarify which techniques and approaches are the most effective. Due to variation in frequency of
presentation of children to primary dental care services it is particularly important to take full advantage
of episodes when children attend for dental care. The preventive potential of one-to-one interactions
between members of the dental care team and children should be maximised by focusing attention on key
interventions and messages.