Dental trauma management awareness of Singapore pre-school teachers

The purpose of this study was to assess the awareness of pre-school teacher s concerning the management of traumatized teeth. A questionnaire survey of teachers' backgrounds, attitudes/ practices and knowledge was distributed to all teachers who attended a dental education program organized by the Si ngapore Dental Health Foundation. Of a total of 291 teachers sun eyed, 29% had received tertiary education, while the rest (71%) had received secondar y education. The mean teaching experience was 6.8+/-6.9 years. About a quar ter had previous experience in handling dental trauma. Sixty-three percent admitted having no knowledge of dental trauma: 79% were unsatisfied with th eir level of knowledge in this area; 95% were keen to hare further educatio n in dental trauma; 65% thought dental trauma emergency should be dealt wit h as soon as possible. Concerning knowledge, during-office hour emergency s ervices were more familiar (84%) than after-office hour emergency services (15%), as was the concept of management of avulsed teeth (71%) compared to that of fractured teeth (51%). Knowledge about optimal storage media for av ulsed permanent teeth was especially poor - being as low as 15%. Using mult iple logistic regression analysis: it was found that teaching experience si gnificantly influenced the respondents' self-assessed knowledge and their l evel of satisfaction with their knowledge (P=0.012) Teachers with more teac hing experience had better knowledge about the replantation of permanent te eth (P=0.003). It is recommended that public education targeted at teachers should be carried out to increase dental trauma management awareness.