Effectiveness of Interactive Oral Care Lessons on Children Dental Health Practices

It presents a randomized clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of interactive oral care lessons for children. It highlights the importance of oral health education during childhood and proposes using engaging teaching methods. The study involves baseline and post-intervention assessments, with participants randomly assigned to receive oral health education or serve as a control group. Data collected through questionnaires and plaque assessments will be analyzed to determine the impact of the intervention on oral hygiene habits.

It presents a comprehensive research plan aimed at assessing the effectiveness of interactive oral care lessons for children through a randomized clinical trial. It begins by emphasizing the crucial role of oral health education during childhood in establishing lifelong positive oral hygiene habits. The proposed study seeks to address this need by implementing interactive teaching methods tailored to engage young learners effectively.

The study will be conducted in a schools located in Lahore.

The inclusion criteria for participant selection specify children within the age range mentioned. In contrast, exclusion criteria include those who do not provide permission and consent from both children and their parents, as well as children with underlying systemic diseases or special healthcare needs.

Data collection procedures involve obtaining approval from the departmental research committee and gaining authorization from school principals. Discussions with parents will be scheduled to explain the research in detail and obtain written consent. The schools will then be randomly divided into two groups: Group I, receiving oral health education (experimental), and Group II, serving as the control.

The study will be conducted in three phases over six months:

Phase 1: Baseline Assessment Demographic information ,oral health questionnaires will be collected. Plaque assessment will be conducted using the Silness and Loe plaque index under natural lighting conditions.

Phase 2: Intervention Group I will receive comprehensive oral health education sessions covering topics such as the importance of teeth, brushing techniques, dental caries, and preventive measures.

Group II will not receive any intervention and will serve as the control. Phase 3: Post-Intervention Assessment Oral health-related knowledge and behavior will be reassessed using the same questionnaires.

Plaque assessment will be repeated using the Silness and Loe plaque index. Data analysis will involve Intention-to-treat analysis. The Shapiro-Wilk test will be applied to explore whether the data are normally distributed. Missing data will be reported. The mean and standard deviation will be presented for normal data, whereas for non-normal data, the median and interquartile ranges will be displayed. Frequencies and percentages will be used to depict categorical data. Differences in adherence scores between the two groups at 0 and 6 months for the primary and secondary outcomes, parametric tests (Independent samples t-test/Paired samples t-test), and nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney U test /Wilcoxon signed-rank test) will be conducted on the data. P \< 0.05 will be used as the significance test. Data will be reported as to why it is missing. All analysis will be made using SPSS and R-Studio.

The outcome of the study aims to provide insights into the effectiveness of interactive oral care lessons on children dental health practices. The research schedule includes phases for data collection, data entry, data analysis, and article write-up.

Eligibility Criteria:
Inclusion Criteria:

* Age between 5 to 12 years. Enrollment at one of the selected schools.
* Consent obtained from parents or legal guardians for participation in the study.

Exclusion Criteria:

* Children and their parents who did not give assent and consent to participate in the study.
* Children with severe oral health issues requiring immediate medical attention.
* Children with special needs affecting their ability to participate in the oral health education interventions.