فهرست نشریات علمی دسترسی آزاد ایران

INTRODUCTION: Schools are a valuable platform for promoting oral health through oral healtheducation as the children spend most of their active time in schools. Training school teachers on oralhealth promotion will help to inculcate healthy oral habits in children during their formative years of life.OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to assess the knowledge, attitude, approach, andaction change of school teachers toward oral health and the impact of this training intervention inimproving their knowledge.MATERIALS AND METHODS: An interventional study was conducted among 50 primaryschool teachers across the country selected by the Ministry of Human Resource Development.A self‑administered, 28‑item questionnaire in Google document format was developed to evaluatethe knowledge and practice of teachers toward oral hygiene before and after the teachers’ trainingprogram. The training was done using a validated training manual on oral health promotion for schoolteachers developed by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. Needs assessment for trainingwas conducted 1 week before this training program.STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: Wilcoxon signed‑rank test and Mc Nemar tests were used to assess thedifference between the scores before and after oral health education.RESULTS: The needs assessment revealed that majority of the teachers felt the need to participatein oral health promotion training. A significant increase (P < 0.001) in mean knowledge scores ofschool teachers was seen after a 1‑day training program.CONCLUSION: The training improved the knowledge of school teachers on oral health whichindicates that the adopted method of oral health education was well received by the participantsfrom all over the country.