Abstract

GARBIN, Cléa Adas Saliba; ROVIDA, Tânia Adas Saliba; PERUCHINI, Luis Fernando Dahmer  and  MARTINS, Ronald Jefferson. Oral health knowledge and practices developed by teachers of elementary and secondary local schools. RFO UPF [online]. 2013, vol.18, n.3, pp. 321-327. ISSN 1413-4012.

Introduction: The oral health education is a process that aims to transform attitudes and behaviors and to form habits for the benefit of individual health. For this to occur, it is necessary to strengthen and continuous repetition, as possible in the school environment. Objective: To analyze teachers' knowledge about oral health, practices developed in the school environment, as well as the participation of dentists in guiding teachers of primary and secondary schools. Subjects and method: We used a semi-structured questionnaire with open and closed questions about teacher training, received guidance on oral health during their training, development of oral health issues in the classroom and knowledge on the subject . Results: Of the total respondents (n = 221), only 77 (34.8%) said they had guidance on oral health in their training to be a teacher. 70 (31.7%) said they did not develop oral health issues in the classroom and 91 (41.2%) stated no interaction between dentist and professor. We observed deficiency in teachers' knowledge about certain issues related to dental health. There was statistically significant association between the dentist's guidance to teachers and the development of oral health actions and the teacher's knowledge about the location of the first permanent molar eruption (p <0.01). Conclusion: This study conclude that although most educators develop educational practices on oral health in the school environment, there is a deficiency in understanding by teachers of certain subjects, making it necessary a greater participation of the dentist in the transmission of technical and scientific knowledge to them.

Keywords : Faculty; Knowledge; Health education; Oral health.