School teacher’s knowledge and attitude about emergency management of traumatic dental injuries

Abstract

Background: Dental trauma is one of the critical (71-92%) oral health problems in childhood and adolescence that can affect an individual’s quality of life. Teachers may witness a dental injury on many occasions, and they are likely to be involved at the site of an accident. Hence, they may have some knowledge about dental injury and should be capable of managing prompt and correct emergency treatment at the accident site. Aim: Assess to knowledge of Mongolian school teachers and their attitude with regard to emergency first aid management of traumatic dental injuries occurring in schools. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire based cross sectional online survey was conducted to determine knowledge and attitude about traumatic dental injuries among 2821 full time working elementary and high school teachers. The inclusion criteria were full time employment at the time of data collection with at least 1 year of teaching experience. The Student t test or one-way ANOVA was used to evaluate the obtained data. The level of significance was set at p≤0.05. The study approved by the Research Ethics Committee of MNUMS (2022/3-03). Results: The overall mean level of teachers’ knowledge regarding emergency management of dental trauma was 5.32±2.1 points, out of a maximum possible score of 14. There were significant differences in better knowledge teachers age (p=0.001) and teachers working experience (p=0.001). Conclusions: 1. The knowledge score f school’s teachers about dental injuries (5.32±2.1) is insufÏcient, although the first aid attitude towards dental injuries is positive. 2. A higher teacher knowledge score about dental trauma is associated with a positive attitude toward trauma care 3. As the teacher’s work experience increases, the knowledge score about dental injuries increases.