Mothers and teachers participation in an oral health education program for pre-school children in Kuwait

ABSTRACT

An oral health education program was conducted in the government nursery schools of two governorates in Kuwait, namely, the Capital and Farwaniya governorates. Oral health education sessions were given to 6421 children in the Capital and 7887 children in Farwaniya nursery schools. Each class in the different schools included in the program received a one hour health education session which consisted of oral health talk of 15 minutes followed by a video film presentation of 15 minutes. Finally the correct method of toothbrushing was demonstrated for each child and supervised brushing was performed by all children. Educational sessions were held for the mothers and teachers in the different schools. Each session extended over 90 minutes to 2 hours and included information and advices regarding the various aspects of oral health. The numbers of mothers and teachers attending the health education sessions were recorded and taken as an index of their willingness to participate and cooperate in efforts for oral health education for their children. The percentages of attending mothers in the different schools of the two governorates ranged from 2.09% to 50.76% with an overall mean attendance of 14.28%. For the teachers, the percentages of attendance in different schools ranged from 14.29% to 100% with an overall mean of 70.66% for the two governorates. The need for motivating mothers and teachers to participate in oral health education programs for young children was evident. Recommendations were given for oral health education programs for preschool children to be more beneficial based on the results and discussion of the present work