Prevalence of Dental Caries and the Effectiveness of Demonstration on Dental Hygiene among Primary School Students in Selected Schools of Rural Community, Assam

Abstract

Introduction: Oral health promotion through schools is recommended by WHO for improving knowledge,
attitude and behaviour related to oral health and for prevention of dental diseases among school children.
In India, 70 -72% of population live in the rural areas of which more than 40% are children. These children
tend to be more vulnerable to oral health problems.
Aim and Objective: To assess prevalence of dental caries and the effectiveness of demonstration on dental
hygiene among primary school students.
Material and Method: The study was a cross?sectional study conducted at selected schools of Rani rural
community of Kamrup District, Assam. 118 primary school students of class IV and V were selected using
consecutive sampling technique. The subjects were assessed for the presence of dental caries using dmft
scoring and observed for their practice of brushing with Fones method of brushing. Later demonstration
for the Fones method was given to the participants and post test was done to evaluate the effectiveness of
demonstration. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS version 20 software.
Results: The study showed that more than half i.e., 92 (78%) of the students have dental caries. It was found
that in pre-test, 79 (61%) of the participants have good practice of dental hygiene which was increase to 93
(78.8%) in post test. Again, in pre-test 46 (39%) of the participants have poor practice of dental hygiene,
which was reduced to 25 (21.2%) in post test. The mean post test practice score (7.03) is higher than the
mean pre test practice score (4.70) of dental hygiene. The median post test practice score (7) is also higher
than the median post test practice score (5) of dental hygiene and the post test SD (0.67) seems to be less
disperse than the pre test SD (0.73) of dental hygiene. It also shows that the “t” value (-28.482) and p -value
0.00 is highly significant at 0.05 level of significance. So it is evident that the demonstration on Fones
method of brushing is effective in increasing the dental hygiene practice among the students.
Conclusion: Regulating good practice of dental hygiene is important during the early school period. As
health personnel, community nurse can take active role in imparting information on dental hygiene practice
among students by conducting school health programme and demonstrating on brushing technique. And also
recommending inclusion of dental hygiene in the curriculum of the school.