Knowledge and influence of primary management of dental trauma in school children, among Hubli- Dharwad school teachers by using two different educating tools: An interventional study

Abstract

Traumatic injuries to the teeth and teeth supporting structures are one of the few areas of dentistry that should be considered as an emergency situation. The present study was conducted to assess the teachers’ knowledge as well as providing knowledge about the dental emergencies and also to know which the best educating tool to provide education is. 120 teachers were categorized into two groups that is group 1 lecture group and group 2 that is smart phone group. A detailed standardized questionnaire consisting of multiple-choice questions. Lecture presentation, was one of the study instrument for group 1. As this is an interventional study between two educating tools that is one being the lecture presentation and the other being the smartphone app. The lecture presentation was for group one where the teachers were given only a lecture about how to manage the emergency dental trauma situation. Smart phone app (Tooth Emergency) was another educating tool in this interventional study. This smartphone was used for the group 2. In group 1, 26 (43.3%) school teachers experienced teeth trauma cases in children and 34 (56.7%) school teachers did not. In group 2, 14 (23.3%) school teachers experienced teeth trauma cases in children, and 46 (76.7%) school teachers did not experience any kind of teeth trauma in child. In response to what will you do when one of the tooth of your student is either broken or totally out of the mouth, the reply was to consult a dentist by 60 in both groups and to just inform in 0 in both groups. Which type of dental injury you come across in children and reply was soft tissue injury in 26 and 19 and hard tissue injury in 34 and 41 in group I and II respectively. Most common type of dental injury you come across in children was shaken tooth in 6 and 8, knocked out tooth (tooth fallen out of mouth) in 28 and 33 and soft tissue (Lip, chin) injury in 26 and 19 respectively. Smart phone app (Tooth Emergency app) can be a better educating tool in emergency management of dental trauma in school children.