Comparison and Evaluation of Attitude and Knowledge Towards the Management of Dental Injury in School Teachers Before and After Oral Health Education.

BACKGROUND

Dental traumatic injuries are prevalent in school-going children. Therefore, It is critical to ascertain the knowledge and practices of school teachers who are in close contact with these children.

AIM

To evaluate the knowledge and attitude of school teachers toward dental trauma and the effect of the educational intervention.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

The interventional study was designed by two-stage cluster sampling. A total of 158 teachers were part of the research. Data was collected through a pretested questionnaire. Re-evaluation was done after an informative lecture. Results were statistically analyzed.

RESULT

The knowledge was consistently lacking prior to intervention with the level of correct answer ranging from 0.6 to 56.3%. It improved significantly post education ranging up to 96.6%. A positive attitude was noticed even before the intervention was employed.

CONCLUSION

Study observes a significant knowledge gap regarding the primary management of dental injuries amongst school teachers and emphasizes the need for urgent educational intervention to fill in this gap.

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE

Suggestions derived from this study are especially important in today's scenario where, the concept of conservation, retention, prevention and early intervention of tooth structures is topmost of all the priorities. Nashine N, Bansal A, Tyagi P, Jain M, Jain A, Tiwari U. Comparison and Evaluation of Attitude and Knowledge towards the Management of Dental Injury in School Teachers Before and After Oral Health Education. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent. 2018;11(5):425-429.