ORAL HEALTH KNOWLEDGE AND PRACTICE AMONG INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL CHILDREN IN TAIF CITY, SAUDIARABIA

Aim : To assess the knowledge and practice of oral health among intermediate schoolchildren in Taif city, KSA. Introduction : Oral health knowledge is an important factor to maintain a healthy oral condition, However, without interpreting this knowledge into practice, maximum oral health will not be achieved.(1) An essential fact for humans to be in a healthy state and well-begin is to have a proper oral health, this can be achieved by knowing and practicing oral hygiene methods in a good manner. Materials and methods : This study started by taking the approvals from the randomly selected schools and giving the choice for the students to complete the questionnaire was considered as an approval to participate in the project, the questionnaires were distributed among 394 participants divided to males and females, The collected data was include: demographic variables, Oral health knowledge ,and practice close ended and multiple choice questions, Statistical analysis was performed by (SPSS 20.0). Results: The results of the study shows most of the participants weren?t aware that the tooth decay can affect their general health ,while the majority of the respondents brush their teeth twice a day, Moreover there was statistically significance difference with(P = ,000) when comparing the knowledge between male and female which shows that the female participants have better knowledge regarding their oral health than male. And also there was a significance difference when comparing the knowledge between students of different socio-economic status ( Private Govermental schools ) with (P = ,000) It was seen that private school students have good knowledge in compare to governmental students. Conclusion: The results of this study shows that the level of oral health knowledge and practice still below satisfaction, so the implementation for further preventive dental public health programs and the involvement of more oral health education programs in the school curriculum can play an important role to improve their knowledge and awareness.