earticle

영어

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of oral health education provided by dental hygiene sophomores on the oral health care skills of elementary school students by conducting the PHP index test in a bid to suggest some of the right directions for sustained oral health education. The subjects in this study were elementary schoolers who were in their third and fourth grade. The selected sophomores who majored in dental hygiene at a college located in Seoul provided oral health education to the elementary school students twice from October 11 to November 9, 2010, at the interval of two weeks. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. As for the oral health status of the elementary schoolers, the rate of those who had dental caries stood at 28.7 percent. The rates of the third and fourth graders who had dental caries respectively stood at 52.9 and 47.1 percent(χ2=2.88, p<.090). Malocclusion was found in 10.4 percent among which the third and fourth graders respectively numbered 42.9 and 57.1 percent(χ2= .59, p<.441). The diseases that indicated the presence or absence of the residual root of baby teeth were found in 0.5 percent who included the fourth graders only(χ2=2.72, p<.99). 26.9 percent needed pit & fissure sealing, and the rates of the third and fourth graders who needed that respectively stood at 61.3 and 38.7 percent(χ2=17.27, p<.000). Periodontal diseases were found in 2.0 percent out of which the third and fourth graders respectively numbered 91.7 and 8.3 percent(χ2=9.60, p<.002). There were significant gaps in the necessity of pit & fissure sealing and the presence or absence of periodontal diseases according to their grade. 2. The elementary schoolers took the PHP index test while they received the oral health education. They got a mean of 2.10 before that education was conducted, and they showed a rise of 0.16 by getting 2.26 after the first oral health education was provided. But after the second oral health education was offered, they got 1.44, which was a drop of 0.82. 3. Concerning the relationship between the oral health education and changes in the PHP index by grade, the third graders got 2.62 before they received that education, and the fourth graders got 1.60. Thus, the fourth graders scored less than the third ones. After the first oral health education was provided, however, the fourth graders got 2.11, which was a rise of 0.51, though the third graders got 2.42, which was a drop of 0.2. After the second oral health education was conducted, the third graders got 1.77, which was a drop of 0.65, and the fourth graders got 1.12, which was a drop of 0.99.