Knowledge of Oral Health of Students from Professorship Courses

Purpose: To evaluate the knowledge and perceptions in oral health of students attending Professorship Courses at schools located in the S o Paulo state, Brazil.Method: The sample was composed by 559 students from two Professorship Courses located in the city of Avaré (S o Paulo state), and the data collection instrument was a semi-structured questionnaire with 8 questions. All responses were tabulated using the SPSS software (version 10.0) and analyzed by descriptive statistics from their absolute and relative frequencies.Results: Most (98.0%) interviewees affirmed to have received some kind of information on oral health, and 73.4% of these reported that the school was the main source of this type of information (45.4%), followed by the dentist (16.1%) and television (15.4%). Although 64.2% of the respondents informed to have studied in schools with dental assistance, only 58.7% had access to some kind of intervention on oral health education at the school they attended. In those cases, lectures were the most frequently used instrument during the activities. Most respondents (76.9%) reported to know the importance of fluoride to the teeth, but only 4.1% clearly described its importance. Regarding dental avulsion, 57.2% of the interviewees answered correctly on how to manage these cases. As much as 99.1% of the participants affirmed that it is important that students from Professorship Courses receive information on prevention in oral health.Conclusion: There should be greater interaction between health and education professionals in order to improve oral health knowledge and practice of future educators.