The purpose of this study was to evaluate cognitive growth of elementary school students (K-6) in an integrated dental health education program. The project was initiated by the Rural Dental Health Program in a rural Pennsylvania community. The sample population of the research project consisted of 1,917 students from nine elementary schools in the project school district. A pre-test/post-test design was selected for the study. The curriculum consisted of approximately ten lessons developed specifically for each grade level. Dental health education was introduced by a broad fields curriculum in order to stimulate the motivation of the child by grouping subject matter into real life patterns. Its orientation focused on the sequential stages of human development including social, psychological, physical, motor, visual-perceptual, cognitive and language development. A control group received dental health education in a traditional direct-teaching approach, using the dental health content of a popular elementary health education textbook series. The following conclusions were drawn from this study: (1) an integrated dental health curriculum exerts a positive effect on dental health knowledge of students in grades kindergarten through six when they have been exposed to the curriculum; and (2) students in sixth grade exposed to an integrated dental health curriculum achieve statistically significantly greater gains on dental health knowledge tests than students exposed to a direct-teaching pattern of organization for dental health education. Recommendations for further research are made. (JD)