Effectiveness of dental trauma education for elementary school staff

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the knowledge of elementary school staff members regarding the management of traumatic dental injuries (TDI) before and after an educational intervention aimed to increase TDI knowledge. Using a newly developed reliable survey instrument, we tested our elementary school staff participants about TDI before (time(0)), immediately after (time(1)), and three months after (time(2)) the intervention. Schools were randomized into three groups: no intervention/control (C), pamphlets (P), and pamphlets + lecture (P + L). Outcomes of interest were TDI knowledge over time relative to the interventions vs controls. Statistical analysis involved a repeated measures linear model. At time(0), TDI knowledge was low among all three groups. At time(1), knowledge increased among all groups and is given by P > P+L > C. For time(2) vs time(1), the P + L group retained the knowledge while in both the C and P groups the knowledge level decreased. Between time(1) and time(2), significant differences were found between both intervention groups when compared with the control (P vs C and P + L vs C: both P < 0.05). In summary, both P and P + L groups significantly improved TDI knowledge among elementary school staff, and this difference held up over time. These interventions have the potential to improve TDI management by elementary school staff when faced with such injuries.