Advances in Dental Research, Vol 9, 130-133, Copyright © 1995 by International & American Associations for Dental Research
Evaluating the social impact and effectiveness of four-year "Love Teeth Day" campaign in China
J. Y. Bian, B. X. Zhang and W. S. Rong
Department of Preventive Dentistry, Beijing Medical University, School of Stomatology, People's Republic of China.
A massive campaign on "Love Teeth Day" (LTD) has been celebrated nationwide
each year in China since 1989. As announced in an official document, nine
government and non-government organizations have jointly issued a circular
designating that the 20th of September of each year be kept for the Love
Teeth Festival in this country. The main activities were planned and
conducted by the National Committee for Oral Health, which was set up in
1988. It aims to motivate the people's awareness of dental self-care,
participation, and to promote community involvement in oral health
education programs. For feedback, two types of questionnaires were designed
and sent to the public and the organizers, respectively, after each
campaign, and then returned to the office for data processing. The findings
from a four-year study indicated that: (1) The activities started from
three municipalities, 29 capitals of provinces, and some large cities
(1989), and spread to most cities in the urban area, and about 300 counties
in the rural area (1992); (2) 14,000 dental professionals and health
workers participated in 1989 as information providers, and increased to
40,000 in 1992; (3) oral health knowledge has increased to 76.2% (1992)
from 37% (1989); and (4) the people's will in dental prevention was
strengthened.
