Chair side oral health education by dental students

Introduction: There is a recognized need to deliver oral health information to people during clinical encounters to enable them to develop personal skills in managing their own oral health. Compared to other modes of Oral health education chair side oral health education has been proved to be more effective. The aim of the study is to assess the self reported data on chair side oral health education provided by clinical year dental students. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to all BDS students of year 4 and 5 (n=99) during the academic year 2011/2012. The students filled the anonymous questionnaire in the class after lecture. The response rate was 78.9% (n=78). The questions consisted of average number of patients treated, information on nature, time, frequency, methods and aids used in chair side oral health education. Results: 85.9% had always given chair side oral health education when others gave it sometimes only. Clinical time (66.7%) was the most reported barrier by the students for them to educate their patient others being language (37.2%), stress and proper aids. Most of them educated their patients after treatment and had spent on average 5-10 minutes. Aids commonly used to educate patients were models (88.5) and students think they need more audio visual aids to be available in clinic. Conclusion: It may be concluded that most of the dental students were giving chair side oral health education. Audio visual aids and models were mostly used for chair side education. Traditional approaches to individual oral health education had been shown largely ineffective and there is a need to develop an effective model for chair side oral health promotion that incorporates this evidence and allows oral health professionals to focus more on the underlying social determinants of oral disease during the clinical encounter. Parole chiave: chairside oral health education