Oral hygiene knowledge of health care teachers in elementary schools of Tabriz in 2015

Abstract

Oral diseases are one of the most prevalent human diseases, especially among the children and more than 99% of people suffer these diseases. Factors that are associated with promotion of effective behaviors have an important role in reducing these diseases. This study was designed to examine the knowledge of primary school teachers with regard to the dental hygiene in Tabriz, Iran.Material & methods: In this descriptive-Cross sectional study that was conducted in 2015, 160 teachers of Tabriz elementary schools were selected and studied. Data were collected with completing the questionnaire. SPSS 16 software was used for data analysis.Results: among 160 school health workers, 2.5% (4 persons) were female and 97.5% (156 persons) were male. Mean age of school health workers was 39.2± 4.6 years old. All of the school health workers had universal education and 10.6% (17 persons) of them had diploma degree and 89.4% (143 persons) of them had BSc degreee. More than half (53.8%) of participated had average awareness. The mean of acquired awareness scores were 10.8 from 15. Conclusion: The result shows that more than half of school health workers had good awareness and its seems that knowledge of these teachers can be increasing by retraining.