Involvement of oral health educators among non-health professionals in oral health
promotion is important in the prevention of oral diseases. This study was carried
out to compare the level of oral health knowledge among pre-school teachers before
and after oral health seminar. Pre-test data was collected by distributing
questionnaire to pre-school teachers in Pasir Mas, who attended the seminar on
“Oral Health” (n=33) and they were required to fill anonymously before the seminar
started. The questions consisted of information on general background, perceived
oral health status, oral health knowledge and the environment where they work.
After two weeks, post-test data was collected using the same structured
questionnaire and identification code was used to match the pre and post data.
SPSS 11.5 was use for statistical analysis. Two out of 33 eligible preschool teachers
were considered non-respondents due to absenteeism during the post-test data
collection. The response rate was 94.0% (n = 31). The study shows a significant
improvement in oral health knowledge among pre-school teachers in Pasir Mas,
after seminar (p < 0.001) as compared to controls. Thus, we can conclude that the
oral health programme (seminar) appeared effective at influencing oral health
educator’s knowledge towards oral health.