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;Adomaitienė, Rima; Albuquerque, TeresaCommunity dental health: Abstract Presentations on Friday, 9 September 2022 at European Association of Dental Public Heath, p. S3-S4Aim: This study aimed to investigate the involvement of Lithuanian dental hygienists in community oral health education. Methods: A qualitative approach (an interview) was used to gather dental hygienists‘ experiences. The inclusion criteria were: graduated at least three years ago, has a dental hygienist‘s license and agrees to participate in the study. Written consents were obtained. Ethics approval was obtained from The Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of Lisbon. Interviews were conducted in 2021 with seven dental hygienists. Thematic content analysis was performed. Results: Three themes were identified. Study participants had many years of professional experience and had a broad approach to their work. They described how they considered oral health advice to help their patients prevent oral diseases and how they performed non-surgical periodontal treatment to be very important elements of their professional practice. Dental hygienists also reported carrying out oral health educational activities and they were happy to do this. They considered that community oral health education was provided randomly, often with little follow up. There was also a lack of funding, government involvement and social partners to support community oral health education. Training tools are prepared by dental hygienists themselves, using their own financial and time resources. Conclusions: Lithuanian dental hygienists are involved in community oral health education, usually on their own initiative, receiving no reward for this work. They are well-positioned and ready to conduct community oral health education. However, the prevention of oral diseases in Lithuania is not well organized and lacks a strategy, funding and consistency10WOS© IF 1.7WOS© AIF 3.2Scopus© SNIP 0.742