Awareness of Dental Trauma Management among Primary School Teachers of Visnagar: Knowledge, Attitudes, and Practices Questionnaire-based Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Aims: The current study assessed school teachers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding emergency dental trauma management in Visnagar, Gujarat. Settings and Design: The cross-sectional survey required participants to complete a validated, closed-ended self-administered questionnaire. Subjects and Methods: The questionnaire, which consisted of 15 questions, was completed by 326 primary and secondary school teachers. Demographic information, knowledge about the teeth most commonly affected by trauma, emergency care, and attitudes toward storage media, etc. were included. This questionnaire also tested the willingness of teachers to participate in future dental trauma management workshops. Statistical Analysis Used: An Excel spreadsheet was used to methodically collect and compile the data, which was then subjected to a statistical analysis using SPSS version 20.0. (Chicago, IL, USA: IBM Company, SPSS Inc.) The descriptive data were percentage-based. The Chi-square test was used to do inferential statistics. Results: Among 343, a total of 326 (95.04%) school teachers responded. Forty percentage of teachers possess knowledge regarding the emergency treatment of dental trauma, 47.90% of teachers were aware about pedodontists, and 93% of teachers showed a willingness to participate in training. Conclusions: The current survey findings indicate that educational activities should be developed to improve preschool teachers’ awareness of the need to treat traumatized teeth at once.

Keywords

• awareness
• children
• dental trauma
• knowledge
• school teachers