“Protect Your Baby’s Smile”: Evaluation of ten years of academic extension

Abstract

The importance of university extension in training student has been the subject of several studies and it is currently included in the guidelines that conduct the graduate programs in the field of Dentistry. Activities of promoting oral health aimed at the early attention focused on children of pre-school age are of great value in commitment terms of this portion of the Brazilian population for oral diseases such as caries and gingivitis. The insertion of the graduate student in the implementation of activities to these children through the extension project of “Protect your baby’s Smile” has been performed about ten years. In front of it, this study aimed to quantify the results achieved through this project, as well as a qualitative assessment of the return that it has brought to the community and for students joining this extension activity, through the analysis of questionnaires applied to the academic and the school teachers. Based on the results it can be concluded that the project has contributed in the academic formation and helped to benefit the aim population regarding the education in oral health.