Knowledge about dental caries among high school teachers

• Autor(a) principal: Cordeiro, Gabriele Amorim
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Silva Junior, Manoelito Ferreira, Daroz, Luiz Gustavo Dias, dos Santos Daroz, Claudia Batitucci
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista da ABENO (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revabeno.emnuvens.com.br/revabeno/article/view/728
• topic: Dental Caries. Health Education. Education; Primary and Secondary.; Cárie Dentária. Educação em Saúde. Ensino Fundamental e Médio.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge about dental caries among high school teachers. This was a transversal descriptive study with a quantitative approach among high school teachers from public and private schools in the city of Vitória/ES, Brazil. The study used a validated self-administered questionnaire adapted for the target population with questions about the knowledge of caries. The descriptive data were presented in absolute and relative frequencies and the association test with Fisher's Exact test (p <0.05). A total of 38 teachers participated in the study, 25 (65.8%) of public schools. Most teachers did not receive information about caries (60.5%) during their academic training and their knowledge was acquired during visits to the private dentist (50.0%). Most of them knew how to define caries as a disease (71.1%), however, there was uncertainty about whether the lesion (39.5%) was the main consequence of its development and the obligatoriness of need for restoration (55.3%) for its treatment. The caries theme is addressed in the classroom by 60.5% of teachers, mainly in the second year (60.9%) and in private schools (p = 0.0285). Most part of the teachers would like that caries become part of the curricular structure of secondary education (92.1%) as they believe in the relevance of this subject (97.4%). As a conclusion, most teachers knew the definition of caries as a disease, however, there was relative ignorance of its consequences and ways of treatment.