Evaluation of the Perception of the Children and Knowledge of the Educators on Buccal Health, Diet and Hygiene

Objective: The purpose was to evaluate the level of perception and knowledge on buccal health, diet and hygiene in children and educators of a public school of Niterói-Rio de Janeiro. Method: The sample constituted by 60 children (4 7 years) subdivided in two groups of analysis (G1- 4 to 5 years and G2- 6 to 7 years) and 25 teachers. For collection of the data two forms had been used (F1- children and F2- educators); F1 contain figures of the food and hygiene resources, while F2 presented questions regarding buccal health, diet and hygiene. The data had been tabulated and analyzed (SPSS 11.0). Results: It was identified that only 24% of the educators presented knowledge necessary on hygienic cleaning to guide parents and children. Although 76% know the importance of foods for teeth, 47.36% didn′t know what kind of food were more healthful (p < 0.05). About the children, 83.3% of G1 and 93.3% of G2 had perceived the importance of the hygiene for teeth, and only 13.3% of G1 and 16.7% of G2 had even so recognized the diet as a representative factor for the buccal health. Conclusion: The authors concluded that even so the majority of the children perceives the importance of the buccal hygiene, these do not recognize the paper of the diet for the maintenance of the health, what it comes to the meeting of the lack of preparation of the educators to guide them, having the necessity of bigger integration school-dentist through lectures and instructions.