COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF DIFFERENT EDUCATIONAL AIDS IN ASSESSING PARENTAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS CHILD’S ORAL HEALTH

Abstract

Objective:The objective of the study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of different educational aid to assess the knowledge and attitude of parents regarding their children's oral health and awareness. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 100 parents between the age group of 0 – 14 years.Group - 1 (Educational Handout - Brochure) with 50 parents and Group – 2 (Power point presentation) with 50 parents were assessed through a self-administered questionnaire and efficacy of educational aid was evaluated and statistical analysis was performed Results: There was a statistically significant difference seen for the frequencies between the groups for time of first dental visit, child’s oral care before and after eruption of the milk teeth, importance of primary teeth, awareness of milk feeding bottle at night, thumb sucking habit and preventive treatment of malaligned teeth. Although both groups were effective in spreading awareness among parents with more effective results in group 2. Conclusion: It is concluded that most of the parents were unaware about appropriate care of oral health of their child including first dental visit, deleterious oral habits and preventive treatment in spite of various awareness programmes being held time to time. Hence effective mode of awareness is needed to make oral health awareness programmes successful among the parents. Referring to that audio visual aid of information delivery can be an effective medium. Key Words: Parent’s attitude, child’s oral health, awareness