. Vinay Kumar Bhardwaj; . Kapil Rajiv Sharma; . Rajeshwar Prasad Luthra; . Pravesh Jhingta; . Deepak Sharma; . Ashish Justa
Volume 3, Issue 7 , July 2013, , Pages 1-4
Abstract
Background: Health education for the school age child is a specialized field within thebroad discipline of education. Oral health education program are educational aspects of anycurative, ...
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Background: Health education for the school age child is a specialized field within thebroad discipline of education. Oral health education program are educational aspects of anycurative, preventive and promotional health activity. Aim: The study has been undertakento evaluate the impact of oral health education on the status of plaque, gingival health anddental caries among 12 and 15 years old children attending government school in Shimlacity. Materials and Methods: Two hundred and seventy six school children participated inthe study. The study was conducted over a period of 4 months from May 2010 to August 2010in Government Senior Secondary School, Sanjauli. Plaque, gingival and caries status wasassessed by using Silness and Loe plaque index, Loe and Silness gingival index and WHOmodified DMFT index, respectively. Data was analyzed using the software SPSS version 15.Paired t‑test and Wilcoxon signed rank sum test were used appropriately for statisticalcomparisons. P value ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Overall meanplaque score and gingival score decreased significantly after oral health education irrespectiveof gender. However, decrease in plaque score among 15 years old female children and gingivalscores among 12 and 15 years old female subjects was not significant. Difference in mean cariesstatus was statistically insignificant among all the subjects. Conclusion: Short term oral healtheducation program may be useful in improving oral hygiene and gingival health. Coordinatingefforts should be enhanced between school personnel, parents and health professionals toensure long‑term benefits of such program.