Effectiveness of oral health educational program on the knowledge and practice of institutionalized orphan children in Alexandria, Egypt

Aim: This study aimed to measure dental caries and to evaluate the improvement in the knowledge and practice of Orphan Children after implementing an educational program.

Materials and methods: This study was an intervention pre-post design that included 80 children, aged 6-12 years. Intervention with an oral health education program was introduced to the orphans. The data was collected at baseline using a questionnaire to collect data about the knowledge, practice, and examination of DMFT (decayed, missing, and filled permanent teeth), dft (decayed, filled deciduous teeth), and OHI-S (oral hygiene index-simplified) was done. The knowledge part of the questionnaire was distributed immediately after the intervention. After 6 months, the knowledge, practice, and OHI-S index were determined, the data were then analyzed using Mann-Whitney A U non-parametric test, Wilcoxon matched pair signed rank test, and Fridman's 2-way ANOVA test in SPSS version 25 software.

Results: 89% of the children had dental caries, with mean DMFT 2.23 ± 2.1 among males and 3.3 ± 2.3 among females, dft among males was 3.1 ± 2.5 and 3.3 ± 2.1 among females. The mean score of OHI-S significantly decreased after health education intervention from 4.79 ± 1.4 to 0.62 ± 1.0. Mean scores of total knowledge and practice significantly increased after 6 months from 3.4 ± 1.3 to 7.1 ± 1.1 and 1.3 ± 0.9 to 4.9 ± 0.3, respectively.

Conclusions: The orphans had moderate DMF and dft, fair knowledge about their oral cavity, poor OHI-S, and practices at baseline. The educational program had succeeded in improving their knowledge and practice.