Journal of Dental Medicine

Background and Aims: Trauma to the permanent and deciduous incisors is an undesirable common event in childhood. Proper immediate management of injured teeth is depended on the knowledge of unprofessional people, including teachers, who are usually present at the scene prior to dental treatment. The aim of this study was to assess the knowledge and self-reported practice of primary school teachers on the emergency management of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) in Arak.

Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 624 primary school teachers were enrolled in census in Arak. An anonymous questionnaire containing demographic data, the history of previous exposure to traumatic dental injuries, teachers’ knowledge regarding emergency management of TDIs and their practice towards TDIs was used. Questionnaires were distributed among all participants and then were collected on the same day. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were performed to analyze the data.

Results: A total of 292 completed questionnaires (response rate 46.8%) were collected. The mean score of knowledge was 2.65±1.69 out of 10. The mean score of self-reported practice was 3.46±2.04 out of 8. Regarding the demographic variables, knowledge had a significant relationship with the education (P<0.001). No significant relationships were observed between the self-reported practice and demographic variables. The correlation coefficients between the knowledge scores and the practice scores of teachers was 0.2.

Conclusion: This study revealed that insufficient knowledge exists among primary school teachers on emergency management of TDIs. Furthermore, a high percentage of respondents enjoy a significant deficiency regarding favorable practice encountering TDIs.

Background and Aims: School teachers have key role in providing the basic health information for their students, and their knowledge, attitude, and practice affect children's oral health through developing of the healthy behaviors. The goal of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an oral health education program for primary school teachers on their knowledge, attitude, and practice fields in the framework of oral health promoting schools.
Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental pre-post study was conducted among five oral health promoting schools in Isfahan city in 2019. A validated and reliable questionnaire including four sections of demographic data, knowledge, attitude, and practice was applied for data collection. The questionnaire contained 24 knowledge, 9 attitudes, and 5 practice questions. It was distributed among 63 enrolled teachers at base line and two months later after two educational-emotional workshops. Before and after data were analyzed by SPSS21 (α=0.05) by related samples Wilcoxon signed rank test and background variables by Kruskall-wallis test.
Results: After the educational intervention, their knowledge score increased significantly from 14.1±3.8 to 18.5±3.7 (P<0.001). About 34% of teachers had a high level of knowledge proficiency at the beginning of the study which eventually rose to 76%. Teachers’ attitude decreased significantly from 34.6±5 to 31.4±4.6 (P<0.001). At the beginning of the study, 89% of them had a positive attitude towards oral health programs which decreased to 84% at the end of the study. In the performance part, 63.5% of the teachers paid attention to the fluoride in their toothpaste which reached 87.3% after the workshop and the teachers' performance score increased from 3.07 to 3.39 after the intervention (P<0.012).
Conclusion: The package of educational intervention for teachers in oral health-promoting schools improved the level of knowledge and practice, but slightly reduced the level of attitude. However, due to the importance of changing attitudes in teachers and the existence of structural and programmatic barriers to integrate the health issues into school education, other models need to be evaluated and compared.