Effect of Dental Health Education on the Knowledge and Attitude Among Expectant Mothers: A Questionnaire Study

BACKGROUND: Although dental caries levels have declined and stabilized the world over, the problem of early childhood caries has remained persistent in many areas of the world affecting certain segments of society, especially the socially deprived, who remain at high risk to this disease. Parents have an essential role in mediating between their children and environment for which prenatal period is the best time for health interventions. This mediation is done through preventive services they provide to their children such as dietary habits supervision, oral hygiene performance, and other practices that can be enhanced by prenatal dental health education. PURPOSE: The purpose of the study was to evaluate, by means of a questionnaire, the expectant mother’s knowledge and attitude toward dental health and to test the effectiveness of the health education tool. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The baseline questionnaire consisted of 27 questions, which was distributed to 138 participants. Subsequently, provision for dental health education was made in batches of 20. After 3 weeks, 10 questions were randomly selected from the first questionnaire for reassessment session. Paired t test was used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: The mean overall knowledge improved from 67.4% to 97.32% and attitude improved from 75.83% to 99.22%. CONCLUSION: Knowledge and attitude of mothers was found to increase on provision of dental health education, which were retained even after a period of 3 weeks.