Assessment of awareness among primary school teachers toward students’ oral care in Ahmedabad city, India – A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Primary schools fit the criteria for oral health awareness program, and the leading reason is that health behavior developed during early age period has concrete foundation in children’s health practices. Limited amalgamation of dental education in school syllabus is the prime reason, why oral health knowledge in schoolteachers must be optimum. Aim: This study aimed to assess the awareness among primary school teachers toward students’ oral care in Ahmedabad city. Setting and Design: A cross-sectional study enrolling 240 primary school teachers of government and private schools of Ahmedabad city. A total of 16 questions were formulated for the study. Materials and Methods: Schools within a 7 km radius of the institute were considered a sampling frame. Both government and private schools with primary level were included in the study. Cronbach’s alpha value was 0.71 which shows adequate internal consistency and reliability of a given questionnaire. Statistical Analysis Used: The descriptive statistics were expressed in frequency and percentage. The Chi-square test was applied to analyze oral health awareness among government and private primary school teachers. Results: 72.9% of teachers were female. Government school teachers reported significantly higher level (P ≤ 0.05) of knowledge about the number of times one should brush their teeth in a day. 87.4% of government school teachers and 90.5% of private school teachers agreed on attending oral health education program. Conclusion: The present study findings conclude that primary school teachers’ oral health knowledge is good. Their attitude is pragmatic, and practice toward students’ dental care is favorable.