Monitoring and evaluation of oral health: Report of a WHO Expert Committee,meeting held on Chiang Mai,8-14 December 1987

Introduction -- Oral health care information management -- Monitoring and management for special groups -- Monitoring the cost and quality of oral health care -- Monitoring oral health programmes -- Health systems research needs for oral health -- Recommendations and conclusions

Presents a methodology for strengthening oral health care services through systematic monitoring and evaluation. Addressed to both governments and the dental profession, the report concentrates on basic principles of service planning and monitoring, identifying factors to be considered, questions to ask, and procedures to follow at different stages in the evaluation process. Throughout the report, emphasis is placed on the importance of formal, systematic evaluation as a means of ensuring that the components of oral health services, whether involving schemes for water fluoridation or procedures of clinical care, are functioning to maximize the preventive power of dental medicine. The report opens with the presentation of a model for oral health programmes based on primary health care and defined by the objective of converting a demand for episodic, rehabilitative and restorative treatment to an expectation of preventive services. The second section, focused on the management of oral health care information, offers detailed advice on the selection, collection, recording, and analysis of data. Sections devoted to monitoring begin with an analysis of the needs of such high-risk groups as preschool or school-age children, the elderly, and those in institutions, followed by an identification of factors that influence the costs and quality of care. The most extensive section concentrates on the specific components of monitoring, indicating what should be measured in each particular area of service, how and by whom an assessment should be made, and how and by whom the information should be used. Of particular practical value is a description of a monitoring system being used in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which illustrates the effective collection and use of information on the quality of oral health services. Readers are also given a series of examples of basic recording and reporting forms