Education on Oral Health Knowledge and Oral Hygiene of Junior High Schoolchildren

Indonesian children have the lack of knowledge and awareness of the dental and oral hygiene. The aim of the study was to describe oral health education to improve oral health knowledge and oral hygiene of junior high school children. A quasi-experiment pre-post-test without control group design was conducted in private school in Jakarta, Indonesia. A total of 64 samples, 12 – 14-year-old schoolchildren were examined using the simplified oral hygiene index (OHI-S) and oral health knowledge questionnaire before and after oral health education. The mean OHI-S and oral health knowledge scores were compared and evaluated using the parametric t-test for dependent samples. Oral hygiene before education score was 2.04 ± 0.77 and improve after education score was 1.37 ± 0.59 (p = 0.00, 95% CI). Oral health knowledge before education score was 63.8 ± 1.28 and increased after education score was 83.8 ± 1.09 (p = 0.00, 95% CI). The oral hygiene status and oral health knowledge among junior high school children in Jakarta, Indonesia are poor. Oral health education can improve oral health knowledge and oral hygiene .