An educational intervention for improving knowledge of Syrian school children about avulsion using the "save your tooth" poster

Abstract

Background The prognosis of replantation of an avulsed tooth is affected by the first aid management in the first 15 min after traumatic incident. Knowledge of the optimal management is crucial to successful replantation. The objective of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of educational intervention using the Arabic version of the "save your tooth" poster designed by the International Association of Dental Traumatology IADT, in improving the knowledge of schoolchildren about first aid management of avulsion of permanent teeth. Methods An interventional educational study was undertaken. A total of 550 schoolchildren aged 9–12 years participated in this study. Thirteen public primary schools in Damascus city were selected. A questionnaire was developed to measure the knowledge of schoolchildren about avulsion of permanent teeth. The translated IADT education poster about avulsion management was adopted.The content of this poster was explained to the children. Two months later, the subjects were re-evaluated using the same questionnaire. Paired sample t-test was used to test the differences existed between the two assessments. Result A total of 537 schoolchildren completed the questionnaires in which (n = 305) 57% were females and (n = 232) 43% were males. The findings demonstrated significant improvement in the participants’ responses after interventional education (P < 0.05). The mean score of knowledge increased significantly from 3.71 at the baseline to 4.03 after the intervention (P < 0.003). Conclusion The findings of the present study showed that the level of knowledge of Syrian schoolchildren regarding first-aid management of avulsion of permanent teeth was limited at the baseline. The follow-up results showed that the educational intervention based on the “save your tooth” poster was significantly effective in improving the knowledge of schoolchildren. Further interventions to educate all Syrian schoolchildren about avulsion could be of great value to prevent its negative aesthetic, functional, psychological, economic impacts.

School-Based Interventions on Dental Trauma: A Scoping Review of Empirical Evidence

“…However, the majority of educators in another study would refer cases to a professional dentist, a doctor, and a nurse (1.5%) [24]. Similarly, for students, pre-intervention knowledge of the storage of an avulsed tooth [29], appropriate management of an avulsed permanent tooth [20,29], a displaced tooth, and a fractured tooth was deficient [29].…”

“…The ideal timing for replantation varied among the authors, some stated 30 min to 1 h [23], others stated within 30 min of trauma [20,31] or within 15 min [22]. Before the intervention, only a few participants understood the importance of time in the emergency management of an avulsed tooth [31].…”

“…For the majority of the reviewed publications, the intervention produced desired outcomes in the study population as the knowledge level significantly improved from pre-intervention to post-intervention [11,20,23,24,26,29,30,32,34,35]. This was evident in most knowledge topics measured: understanding of TA, extra-alveolar time [24,25,32], permanent and primary TA, [25,32], replantation and cleaning of avulsed teeth, and suitable storage/transportation medium for an avulsed tooth [13,21,[23][24][25][26]31,32,35].…”

“…Knowledge of avulsed tooth management [31], handling [23,24], first-aid care [13,20,21,25], actions to take in case of TA [25,31], reattachment of a broken tooth part, and the importance of avulsed tooth replantation [11] also improved. Similarly, the knowledge that anyone can replant an avulsed tooth changed positively [25].…”

“…For participants who witnessed [30] or experienced [33] cases of TA post-intervention and those who did not, some positive change in the emergency care practices was manifested [30,33]. Examples of a positive change in actions included looking for the tooth, seeking professional help within 30 min [20] until one to six hours after avulsion, an increase in the number of clinic visits [33], confidence in the ability to replant an avulsed tooth, association of dental doctor to DT management, physical examination [26], and a positive attitude to professional referral [24]. Some unimpressive post-intervention attitudes included not storing/transporting avulsed teeth in a recommended storage medium, late clinical presentation after dental trauma, and poor self-care actions [33].…”