Auxiliary delivered school based oral health promotion among 12-14-year-old children from a low resource setting-A cluster randomized trial.

OBJECTIVES: This community intervention study compared the changes in oral health knowledge, attitude, practices (KAP), and oral health indicators among 12-14-year-old children who received a school based oral health promotion delivered by auxiliaries in a rural setting in India. METHODS: The interventions in this school based cluster randomized trial were delivered using schoolteachers and school health nurses. Oral health education (once in 3 months), weekly classroom based sodium fluoride mouth rinsing and biannual oral health screening/ referral were provided for 1 year. The control arm did not receive these interventions. Oral health indicators and self-administered KAP questionnaire were evaluated at baseline and 1-year follow-up. Oral health indicators included oral hygiene index simplified, DMFT/DMFS net caries increments, prevented fraction, number of sites with gingival bleeding, changes in care index, restorative index, treatment index, and dental attendance. RESULTS: The improvement in total KAP score, oral hygiene, and gingival bleeding from baseline to follow up was higher in the intervention arm (p < 0.05). The prevented fraction for net caries increment were 23.33% and 20.51% for DMFT and DMFS, respectively. Students in the intervention group had a higher dental attendance (OR 2.92, p < 0.001). The change in treatment index, restorative index, and care index were significantly higher in the intervention arm (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Inclusion of available primary care auxiliaries like school health nurses and teachers in oral health promotion is a novel, effective, and sustainable strategy to improve oral health indicators and utilization in rural areas in low resource settings.

Self-perception on oral health and related behaviours among antenatal mothers attending a public antenatal clinic - Kerala.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Antenatal oral care has been given least priority on a global scale. The study assesses self-perception of oral health knowledge and related behaviors among antenatal mothers. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was done among 400 pregnant women attending antenatal care clinic of a tertiary care center in Kerala, India. Details regarding knowledge, attitude, and practice were obtained, after getting an informed consent. The dental caries experience and gingival status were measured. To test the significance (p ≤ 0.05) between variables, Chi-square test was used. RESULTS: Poor oral health knowledge was observed among 75.5% of the pregnant mothers. Oral health problems were reported by 63.2% of them. Low priority for oral health (59.4%) and fear for fetal safety (17.5%) were the reasons for delaying dental services. Oral examination showed that more than half of the study subjects had a high prevalence of dental caries (67.5%) and low gingival bleeding status (26.2%). The study highlights that more than half of the study population (60.8%) were influenced by the elderly in the family to avoid certain food items. A better oral health knowledge was observed among the upper middle class (OR - 2.8) who had visited dentists within the last six months (OR - 3.6) and child bearing mothers (OR- 0.46) (p ≤ 0.05).