Assessment of oral health knowledge, attitude, and behavior among school teachers of Karad city

Aim: Teacher plays pivotal role in any educational system if they themselves are well educated; intellectually, this will add in the formation and modification of behavior of young children. Hence, the present study was undertaken with an aim to assess their knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward oral health in Karad City. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 300 school teachers of Karad City; both private and government school teachers were included in the study. Approval was obtained from the selected schools, and written informed consent was obtained before the start of the study. A self-structured questionnaire consisting of 14 questions regarding oral health knowledge, attitude, and behavior was distributed to the participants. The frequency and percentage of the data for all three sections were obtained during the analysis. Results: Response rate was 100 % with 300 school teachers from Government and privates schools. Among them 68% teachers were aware of what gum bleeding means, 70.67% had knowledge of how to prevent gum diseases by using tooth paste. Alost all of them (100%) agreed consuming sweets affect dental health. Nearly 83.33% of teachers agreed that intake soft drinks affect dental health and also has overall impact on the health of the body. About 88.67% teachers agreed to the necessary of regular visits to dentist and 3.67% teachers found toothache is the driving factor to the dentist. About 98.67% used tooth brush and tooth paste to clean their teeth and 73.67% of them brushed their teeth once daily. Conclusion: Overall oral health knowledge, attitude, and behavior of Karad school teachers was good.