Knowledge and attitudes on early childhood oral health among medical and dental graduate students

Abstract

Introduction: Primary health care providers have an opportunity to motivate and improve the oral health of children. Hence, the objective of the present study was to assess the knowledge and attitude of medical and dental graduate students on early childhood oral health (ECOH). Materials and Methods: A cross sectional study was conducted among medical and dental graduate students to assess the knowledge and attitudes on ECOH through the questionnaire. The data were analyzed using chi-square analysis and Newman-Keuls post hoc procedure, with level of significance set at 0.05. Results: All the students who were present for a lecture session responded for the questionnaire, majority of them were females (68.50%). Final year dental students had better knowledge than first year dental and medical students (P < 0.01). Majority of students thought textbooks are the primary source of information and mass media would be better source to gain knowledge about ECOH (54.52%). Majority of dental students showed enthusiasm to learn about ECOH. Conclusion: Knowledge on ECOH among medical students was inadequate, who also lack enthusiasm for better understanding on ECOH, compared to dental students. Mass media would be a better means of imparting knowledge on ECOH.