Baby Teeth Talk Study

The ‘Teeth Talk’ project, formally known as ‘An oral health literacy intervention for Indigenous adults in a rural setting’, is in its third year. After recruitment of 400 adults from Port Augusta and surrounding areas in late 2010, adults were arranged into 40 groups, based on family and social networks. These groups were randomly assigned to either the immediate and delayed intervention arms. In 2011, staff worked tirelessly to support attendance by participants in the immediate intervention arm at a series of 5 oral health education workshops. The themes addressed in the workshops were underpinned by oral health literacy concepts and incorporated oral health-related self-efficacy, oral health-related fatalism, oral health knowledge, access to dental care and rights and entitlements as a patient. A total of 94 participants attended at least one workshop, with 255 attendances over the 12 months. The first follow-up questionnaire has been completed by 270 participants. The first series of workshops is now running for participants in the delayed intervention groups.