Primary School Teachers’ Knowledge Regarding Emergency Management of Avulsed Permanent Incisors

OBJECTIVE: The goal of this study was to evaluate primary school teachers’ knowledge regarding emergency management of avulsed permanent incisors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study was conducted in fifty randomly chosen primary schools from Casablanca, Morocco. All teachers of the selected schools were included in the study. The data were collected by self administered questionnaires. The questions focused on the teachers’ general characteristics, experience of avulsed teeth and the importance of emergency management. The data were analyzed using chi square test. RESULTS: A total of 501 teachers, of which 23.6% were male and 75.4% were female, answered the questionnaire. The results showed that 44.5 % of the teachers had an experience of avulsed tooth at school, 82.82% of them knew the importance of emergency management and 32.6% would look for a dentist for treatment of the cases. Only 15.8% would reimplant the tooth themselves. Regarding the storage media, 21.95% would keep the avulsed tooth in milk. There was no significant difference between gender and education level (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: This study shows school teachers’ lack of knowledge regarding dental trauma and especially tooth avulsion. Therefore, the results indicated that educational programs are necessary for improvement in their level of knowledge.