Teachers’ knowledge about oral health and their interest in oral health education in Hail, Saudi Arabia

Objectives: To assess the dental health knowledge and the interest of secondary school teachers in imparting oral health education in Hail, Saudi Arabia Methods: It was a questionnaire based cross-sectional survey of secondary school teachers in Hail, Saudi Arabia, carried out from November 2014 to January 2015. A validated self-administered questionnaire was used to determine teachers’ oral health knowledge and their interest in participating in oral health education of school children. Data analysis was performed using SPSS version 20 statistical software. Results: Two hundred and twenty three secondary school teachers responded to the survey. Results showed that about 80 to 90 % of teachers had sufficient knowledge of causes and prevention of dental caries and gingivitis. About 94% of teachers agreed that they can play an effective role in oral health promotion while 96% were found to be interested in performing additional duty as oral health promoter. A large majority (91.9 %) had the opinion that oral health education must be included in school curriculum. Conclusion: Teachers in Hail region had adequate amount of knowledge regarding oral health, and they were interested to play their role in promoting oral health education. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended to include dental health education in curriculum at secondary school level and to provide sufficient training to teachers to enable them to participate actively in oral health promotion activities.