IJSR - International Journal of Scientific Research

Chinna Babu Palli; Srinivas Pachava; Shaik Parveen Sultana; Sowjanya Sheela Komarabathina

Volume : VII, Issue : X, October - 2018

Evaluation of Elementary School Teachers Knowledge and Attitude on Management of Traumatic Dental Injuries in Southern Part of India

Chinna Babu Palli, Srinivas Pachava, Shaik Parveen Sultana, Sowjanya Sheela Komarabathina

Abstract :

Introduction:Dental trauma remains one of the important oral health problems in developing nations and can cause much pain and distress in early childhood. It is important to provide immediate emergency care to reduce such outcomes. Most of the time these unwanted situations occurred in school premises. Aim:To assessknowledge and attitude ofthe elementary school teacher’s on management of traumatic dental injuries in southern part of India. Materials and methods:Self–administrated questionnaire based cross–sectional study was done among elementary school teachers in Guntur city, Andhra Pradesh, India. A randomly selected 291 elementary school teachers who had given consent for the study were included and data was analyzed using statistic package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20. Chi–square test and Pearson correlation coefficient were used to determine the relationship between the different variables. P value of 0.05 or less was considered as statically significant. Results:74.2% participants reported that they had inadequate level of information on traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) and 60.8% of the teachers witnessed TDIs in their school premises among which, 69% were government teachers (p>0.034). Only 12.34% participants informed that avulsed tooth can be taken to dental doctor for replantation and none of the participants had prior first aid dental training before joining the job. Conclusion:Knowledge on management of traumatic dental injuries among elementary school teachers in Guntur city was unsubstantial and government school teachers had comparatively more knowledge on management of TDIs than private school teachers.