Objectives : This study has, by looking into the level of cognition towards as oral health educators and that towards water fluoridation on the subjects of general elementary school teachers, identified the effects of those on the oral health organiza...
Objectives : This study has, by looking into the level of cognition towards as oral health educators and that towards water fluoridation on the subjects of general elementary school teachers, identified the effects of those on the oral health organization.
Methodology : 242 average teachers of elementary schools located in 5 districts of Daejeon metropolitan city were selected by the method of Convenience Sampling to perform a survey by Personal Self-administration method. The survey looked into general and professional characteristics of those subjects and consisted of 24 items total, including teachers' perception on health care, the content of their oral health care education, and their experience on restricted activity due to oral disease.
Results : To the importance of the oral health care, generally the number of those who consider it 'less important' was larger, and the better the teachers are educated, the more they consider it important. Attention to the oral health care was highly paid in general, and the percentile of those who are not less than 40 years old (62.4%) and that of those with the career of no-less-than 20 years (94.4%) were the largest. Generally, the level of teachers' knowledge on oral health care was low, and that of male teachers was lower than that of femal teachers. Also that of non-married teachers was lower than that of married ones, and that of most of 30~34-year-old teachers and the ones with career less than 3 years was low. In the cognition level on water fluoridation, the number of non-homeroom teachers was larger than that of homeroom teachers, however, homeroom teachers were more agreed than non-homeroom teachers. For the experience on oral health education, 83.4% of all the teachers indicated 'no experience', 63.5% considered oral health education is necessary. Also, the item of the guidance competency on oral health education indicated that 45.5% of the teachers were not qualified, and 58.9% thought it necessary to involve oral health education in the subject-matter.
Conclusion : For fostering teachers, who might highly influence the elementary school students, with the adequate knowledge on oral health care and for oral health care instruction on students, various oral health care program should be developed and on the run.