nurse and mother as dental heath educators: their knowledge, attitudes and behaviors

ABSTRACT

Concerns about the dental health status of the five-years-old children in Egypt stimulated discussion about the prevention of dental caries. Preschool children should be a target group to reduce the prevalence of and try to prevent dental caries in that vulnerable age group. However, questions concerning who should conduct the dental health education remain unanswered. The ideal person to conduct the initial dental health education would be an individual who is readily available, accessible, and acceptable to both mother and child. The nurse, school health visitor and mothers fulfill these criteria. Furthermore, the nurses or school health visitors or mothers have access both to the clients in their own homes and to the community networks. In this way they can be involved with prevention at an individual counseling level as well as with influencing dental health as part of an over all health promotion strategy. The importance of involving the parents especially the mothers in dental health education has been demonstrated. Parents serve as role models as well as assist the young child to care for his teeth. The aim of this study was to identify the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of the nurses and mothers as dental educators. A questionnaire specially designed for this study was completed by nurses working in schools, hospitals, MCH Centers as well as mothers. Revealed positive attitudes toward dental health education and lack of knowledge. However, tooth brushing was the only dental health behavior mentioned by some of nurses and mothers