EVALUATION OF KNOWLEDGE AND AWARENESS OF PARENTS ABOUT EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT OF TRAUMATIC DENTAL INJURIES

Abstract

Background: The purpose of the present study was to (i) evaluate how awareness parents living in Kocaeli, Turkey are regarding traumatic dental injuries (TDI); and to (ii) evaluate the effectiveness of an information leaflet provided during a dental visit in increasing parents’ awareness regarding TDIs. Methods: The study was conducted with 237 parents of children aged 6-12 years who applied to the Pediatric Dentistry Clinic for routine dental examinations. Parents’ awareness regarding TDIs was assessed using a questionnaire both prior to and 1 month after providing education using a leaflet that included information on the emergency management of actual trauma cases. The questionnaire consisted of 2 parts: Part 1 collected demographic information and information regarding previous experiences of dental trauma, and Part 2 included 12 questions designed to evaluate the level of awareness regarding dental trauma. Data obtained from the questionnaires were statistically analyzed using Kruskal Wallis H, Mann Whitney U, Wilcoxon, McNemar and Chi-square tests. Results: Parents scores on the questionnaires increased significantly (P<.05) from rather low scores (mean: 4.6) prior to education to rather high scores (mean: 9.1) after education. In addition, for each question, the number of correct answers also increased significantly after education (P<.05). Conclusion: The results of this study showed parents had insufficient awareness regarding traumatic dental injuries, but educating them with a leaflet that included real trauma cases during a dental visit had a great impact in terms of improving their awareness about TDIs.