Conducting Presentations and Distributing Consent Forms
Figure 7.2. Dental Hygienist Gives Presentation to Increase Program Participation. Courtesy of the Cincinnati Department of Health.
Presentations to students eligible for the program should occur well in advance of the school-based dental sealant program’s start date to allow adequate time to collect consent forms and prepare student charts. During the initial contact, presentations should be scheduled, and the presentation format, location in the school where presentations will take place, and any other important details should be discussed.
To make sure that teachers understand the importance of dental sealants, they should be encouraged to attend presentations along with students.
For the presentations, if possible, students should be divided by classroom or by grade. Giving the presentation to one large group of second-, sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students usually results in lower participation among students in higher grades.
Presentations can include an educational videotape about dental sealants and the school-based dental sealant program, such as “Seal in a Smile.”
Some school-based dental sealant programs use these presentations as opportunities to provide oral health education as part of federally mandated wellness programs. The National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center’s resource collection includes a variety of curricula that can be used to provide oral health education to students.
Figure 7.3. The “Seal in a Smile” Videotape is Animated and Appeals to Students.
Consent forms are normally distributed during the presentations. School-based dental sealant program administrators can also introduce incentives for returning forms at this time. When selecting incentives, administrators should keep in mind that participation rates are lowest among students in higher grades. Many programs make incentives available to all students who return consent forms, regardless of whether the parents provided permission for the students to participate.
It works best if the individual conducting the presentation and distributing the forms determines the date on which consent forms will be collected. Teachers and other school personnel are informed of the date so they know when school-based dental sealant program staff will return to collect the completed forms. The forms are collected well in advance of the program’s start date to allow time for health histories to be reviewed and student records to be prepared. Based on the number of consent forms returned, adjustments to the number of days the sealant program will be in the school can be made.
Although distributing consent forms during presentations seems to yield the highest participation rates, some school-based dental sealant programs have found effective alternatives for distributing forms. Schools that have a registration period at the beginning of the year have sought parental consent during this time. School nurses, teachers’ aides, and office staff are sometimes committed enough to the program that they can motivate teachers and students to make the distribution and collection of completed consent forms a priority. Offering an incentive (such as restaurant gift certificates) to the person in the school who distributes the forms has been successful in some instances. The key to the success of this approach is identifying a person within the school who understands the importance of the program and is willing to spend the time and energy it takes to get the completed forms back.
Students’ grade and room should be recorded on the form when the consent forms are distributed to make it obvious if consent forms for entire classrooms are missing. If this occurs, it is likely that the consent forms are still in the classroom and can be retrieved on the day of collection. The easiest way to determine enrollment by classroom is for the program administrator to ask for a list of all classrooms that will be participating in the program.
