The Impact of Oral Health Education on Children from the Slums of Thane: A Survey Study

Authors

  • Vedanti Tirpude  BDS, Private dental practice, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
  • Akshata Gailot  Y.M.T. dental college and hospital, Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
  • Ruchita Singh  BDS, Private dental practice, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
  • Nidhi Bajaj  BDS, Private dental practice, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
  • Gabriela Fernandes  BDS, Private dental practice, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India and Department of Oral Biology, School of dental medicine, SUNY Buffalo, New York, USA

Keywords:

oral health, dental, children, survey

Abstract

Aim: Oral hygiene often tends to be ignored and not given much importance to as compared to general hygiene in schools and this in turn takes a toll on the oral health status of every growing individual. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of oral health education on children below the poverty belt residing in Thane, Maharashtra, India.

Materials and methods: A field trial was carried out at an institute in Thane (India). The students of the school, age between 8-12 years, were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their understanding of oral hygiene following which they received a short lecture and demo on oral hygiene maintenance by the dental professional (licensed dentist). After the demo, the students were asked to fill the same questionnaire to see whether their views towards the routine oral hygiene maintenance had changed positively. The before and after study was conducted on 45 students of the Ngo based school.

Results: There was a significant difference in the oral health knowledge of the young individuals with an advancement in knowledge post oral health education (p<0.01). The qualitative results helped judge the impact of education on health care and induce changes in the existing mannerisms of oral hygiene maintenance by bringing about an improvement.

Conclusion: The oral health care education was well accepted and retained by the students resulting in a change in their attitudes towards health care. The scores on the questionnaire supported and showed an improvement after the delivery of education.

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International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology

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Published

2018-02-28

Issue

Volume 4, Issue 2, January-February-2018

Section

Research Articles

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How to Cite

[1]
Vedanti Tirpude, Akshata Gailot, Ruchita Singh, Nidhi Bajaj, Gabriela Fernandes, " The Impact of Oral Health Education on Children from the Slums of Thane: A Survey Study, International Journal of Scientific Research in Science and Technology(IJSRST), Online ISSN : 2395-602X, Print ISSN : 2395-6011, Volume 4, Issue 2, pp.1589-1595, January-February-2018.