Polish School Nurses’ Opinion and Knowledge towards Topical Fluoride Treatment

AIM: The aim of this study was to evaluate the Polish school nurses’ opinion on the topical fluoride treatment and their knowledge about fluoride safety. METHODS: A cross-sectional study with the use of a self-administered questionnaire was conducted on 164 school nurses. The questionnaire concerned previous training in caries prevention, action taken at schools with regard to caries prevention, cooperation with dentists, opinion on the topical fluoride application program and nurses’ knowledge about fluoride safety. RESULTS: 93.9% of nurses included oral health in their duties and 81.7% accomplished the topical fluoride treatment. 52.1% never attended any training concerning dental issues. Nurses from cities and villages more often than those from towns provided lectures on caries prevention and fluoride topical applications (respectively p= 0.033 and p=0.021, chi2 test). The nurses had a positive opinion on the effectiveness and safety of topical fluoride application. Only a half of respondents knew the fluoride probable toxic dose and one fifth of them did not know the concentration of fluoride in gel. The knowledge was statistically dependent on the level of nurses’ education (p=0.019, Kruskal-Wallis test). Nurses with a low level of knowledge were not aware of a potential harm effect of fluoride and they had negative opinion about the effectiveness of fluoride program at school. CONCLUSION: Polish school nurses had a positive opinion on topical fluoride treatment. However, there are gaps in their knowledge and the institutional training is needed.