Knowledge and Attitude of Female Teachers Towards Emergency Management of Traumatic Dental Injuries in Jeddah City: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Teachers are the primary contact point, when an incident occurs in school. Traumatic dental injuries had been frequently reported among school children. The purpose of this study was to assess the attitudes and knowledge of female teachers in Jeddah City in the management of emergency traumatic dental injuries and the referrals of cases to dental clinics within a limited time. In this cross- sectional study, a questionnaire was used to collect information from 503 female teachers from schools that were randomly selected. The survey focused on the general demographic characteristics, attitudes, and knowledge among the school teachers, in addition to their preferred strategies for the management of dental   emergencies. These findings revealed that 64% of the teachers had positive attitudes about dental emergency management in school, while only 37% of them had sufficient knowledge about these emergencies. There was no significant association between the attitudes of the participant their knowledge. Despite these positive attitudes displayed by the teachers, there is a significant lack of knowledge among them about the management of dental emergencies, in particular, about tooth avulsion.