Awareness and knowledge created by issuing dental avulsion pamphlets to parents of primary school children in Chennai

Abstract

Background: Dental avulsion is defined as the complete displacement of tooth out of socket along with severed periodontal ligament with or without fracture of the alveolar bone. Reimplantation of the avulsed tooth is considered as a best treatment modality due to its biological and psychological advantages. Aim: The aims of this study were to evaluate knowledge level among parents regarding tooth avulsion and replantation and to evaluate a simple leaflet as an information tool to enhance this knowledge. Materials and Methods: One Hundred and fifty parents in Chennai city participated in the study. Half of the parents received a leaflet with basic first aid message regarding what to do in case of tooth avulsion. One week after reading the leaflet, the parents who had received the leaflet were evaluated by using a questionnaire. The other half of the parents who had not seen the leaflet served as control. The level of knowledge was measured in the following categories: General knowledge of tooth avulsion, knowledge of replantation and knowledge of storage methods and storage media. By scoring the knowledge, the level of knowledge was calculated. Results: The results showed that knowledge level was low among Chennai parents. Improvement was seen in all categories of knowledge as a result of reading the leaflet. Conclusion: A simple leaflet can be a valuable tool to convey important basic information and enhance knowledge of tooth avulsion and how parents should act in such a situation, although there are limitations in conveying the message for a complete understanding. Measuring the knowledge by scoring can give valuable feedback in developing various educational tools.