Effect of the Community-based SIMS Programme on Preschool Children's Oral Hygiene Level: A Cluster Randomised Control Trial

This is a cluster randomised control trial targeting 5-6-year-old children and their parents in Kampar district, Perak, Malaysia for a period of 6 months. In total, 28 preschools are randomly assigned into intervention and control group (14 preschools per group). Sample size for each group is 317 children. The intervention group receives the SIMS programme (SIMSP) which is an improved version of the usual care, while the control group receives the usual care. Usual care in defined as the existing preschool oral health programme (POHP) offered by the Ministry of Health. The SIMSP is formulated based on the recommendations from the National Oral Health Survey of Preschool Children's (2015) report. It comprises active participation of dental therapists (DT), parents and class teachers in children's oral health. The concept of the SIMSP is that improvement in oral health behaviours and oral hygiene of preschool children would result in improvement of gingival health and caries level in their permanent teeth in the long term. On the other hand, the control group involves DT visiting preschools twice a year without parental nor teachers active involvement. The scientific hypothesis of the study is that the SIMSP is more effective to improve oral hygiene level of preschool children than the POHP over 6 months. The primary objective of the study is to assess the effect of the SIMSP versus the POHP in improving oral hygiene level among 5-6-year-old children over 6 months. The secondary objectives are to assess the changes in oral health behaviours among the children and oral health literacy among parents over 6 months.