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| Year : 2006 | Volume
: 4
| Issue : 7 | Page : 7-12 |
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Dental awareness among Kannada and English Medium Primary School Teachers in Mangalore City
Vinaya Pai, Peter S Sequeira, Ashwini Rao, M Kundabala
Dept. of Conservative Dentistry MCODS, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
Correspondence Address:
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None  | Check |
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School teachers in India constitute one of the biggest organized forces. They shape the future of the country and prepare the young ones for life. The present project has been undertaken to assess the dental awareness between Kannad a and English medium primary school teachers and to compare the dental awareness between Kannada and English medium primary school teachers in Mangalore city.
A questionnaire was distributed to 117 Kannada medium primary school teachers and 75 English medium primary school teachers. The questionnaire had 18 questions, 7 on oral hygiene, 4 on dental visits,
on sources of dental information, 1 on most important reason for taking care of teeth and gums, 1 on most common dental problem affecting the children, 1 on natural teeth were better than artificial teeth, 1 on loss of teeth would affect chewing and appearance, 1 on decayed teeth, 1 on prevention was better than cure.
Statistical analysis was done using chi-square tests and P<0.05 was selected in describing levels of significance.
Results: Regarding the methods and materials used for cleaning the teeth, almost similar practices were seen between both Kannada and English medium teachers. Regarding the type of toothbrush used, the usage of medium toothbrush among English medium teachers was more. Regarding the frequency of brushing most of Kannada medium schoolteachers cleaned twice daily compared to English medium schoolteachers. Kannada medium schoolteachers complained more of bleeding from the gums where as English medium schoolteachers visited dentist for dental pain. Kannada medium teachers claimed that dental treatment was not expensive. Regarding the usage of fluoridated toothpaste, majority of English medium teachers felt that it was better to brush teeth with fluoridated toothpaste as compared to Kannada medium schoolteachers. |
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