The use of school teachers to promote oral hygiene in some secondary school students at Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India: A short term prospective pilot study

STUDY DESIGN: It was a short term prospective pilot study on a group of 116 secondary school students. OBJECTIVES: To assess the feasibility of using the services of school teachers to promote oral hygiene in secondary school students and compare the effectiveness of dental health education (DHE) offered by school teachers on a fortnightly basis with what is offered by dental professionals at three- monthly intervals. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Six secondary schools were randomly selected. The base-line Oral Hygiene Index simplified (OHI-S) and Plaque index (PI) scores for all the students were recorded. The teachers were trained on dental health facts. The six schools were divided into three groups of two schools with different intervention techniques: Group 1- Schools given no health education, Group 2 – Schools given health education by their school teachers on a fortnightly basis together with simple screening for deposits of gross calculus , Group 3 – Schools which were given health education by dental professionals at intervals of three months without any screening. Grade nine students were selected for pre and post intervention evaluation. The second examination was done six months following the intervention to find out the OHI-S and Plaque index scores. The examination was done by three trained and calibrated dentists. Data analysis was done with SPSS 16 with relevant statistical tests. RESULTS: The mean OHI-S and PI scores were significantly less in group 2 and there was a statistically significant difference between the baseline OHI – S, PI score and the scores after six months in all the three groups. CONCLUSION: The concept of utilizing the teachers for frequent DHE and screening for any gross deposits of food debris and calculus is feasible. Also frequent DHE by teachers was more effective than the infrequent DHE by the professionals.