Empowering AYUSH health professionals on oral health promotion in a tertiary care dental hospital in India: An interventional study

BACKGROUND: The extensive reach of AYUSH health professionals allows them to provide profound quality care to the unreachable. These professionals from the traditional system of medicine form fundamental part of the health care system. If adequately trained on oral health they can play a remarkable role in oral health promotion and prevention of oral diseases. OBJECTIVE: A training strategy was thus chalked out and this study was conducted to assess the knowledge of AYUSH health professionals on oral health and the impact of this training intervention in improving their knowledge. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An interventional study via self structured pre and post questionnaire on 49 participants assessed the knowledge of participants on oral health promotion. The needs assessment revealed that all the AYUSH health practitioners felt the need to participate in oral health promotion training. RESULTS: A significant increase in mean knowledge scores from 12.56 ± 2.26 to 15.26 ± 1.40 of AYUSH professionals was seen after a one day training programme. CONCLUSION: The study concluded that the utilization of AYUSH health professionals for oral health promotion and education can aid as a valuable tool for population based oral health promotion approaches.