KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF DENTAL HEALTH CARE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1:1 Background of the Study
Dental health care and education have a direct relationship with the whole child’s health and well being. Studies have shown that appropriate oral health education can help to cultivate oral health practice (Ab-murat& Watt 2006). The change to healthy attitude can be influenced by giving adequate information, motivation and practice of the measures to the children (Smyth, Caamano&Femandez-Reveiro 2007). Dental health education is an accepted procedure in schools based on the assumption that the knowledge needed for good dental health practice can result in behavioural change (Betsey, 1980). Schools therefore, have the responsibility to help protect, maintain and improve the health of their students through the school health programmes. This is why the total school health programme is composed of school health services, health education/instruction, nutrition services and healthful school living.
The aspect of school health programme that introduces dental health education is the School health instruction – a planned, sequential curriculum that addresses the physical, mental, emotional and social dimensions of health of school children. It is designed to motivate and assist students to maintain and improve their health, prevent diseases and reduce health related risk behaviour. (Maryland School Health Services, 2006). It allows student to develop and demonstrate health related knowledge, attitude, skills and practices. The comprehensive health instruction curriculum includes a variety of topics including dental health education where pupils are taught about oral hygiene principles and disease associated with poor dental health care. Therefore, dental health education depends largely upon the acquisition of accurate and useful knowledge concerning good dental health on the part of the students. This becomes successful when the knowledge is put into daily practice resulting in behavioural change. In dental health as in other instructions, the compilation of facts by the learner is not enough and knowing what to do does not guarantee that it will be done (Ajala, 2005&Cooper, 2002). For example, to know that it is necessary to brush your teeth once or twice daily and actually doing it are two different things completely.
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