Effectiveness of educational intervention of oral health for special needs on knowledge of dental students in Saudi Arabia

Abstract background it is critical to educate dental students on the essential aspects of oral care for persons with special health care needs (shcn) as they acquire more dental diseases and 80% not receiving routine dental care. objective/hypothesis: to evaluate awareness and knowledge of dental students concerning oral-health care for persons with shcn, and to assess the effectiveness of an educational intervention in improving their knowledge. methods students completed an evaluation in the form of pre-post questionnaires that were answered before and immediately after the 30- minute dvd educational intervention regarding the oral health care of persons with shcn. ancova test where used to adjust for the pre knowledge and dependent t-tests were used. results the mean±sd of pre-test scores of all students was 15.46±2.97, which increased to 18.09±3.37 on the post-test. the post knowledge scores by dental class (adjusted for the pre knowledge) showed weak-significate anacova f test p value was (p conclusions the educational intervention was effective in providing all five levels of dental students with the basic instructive information needed to care for persons with shcn. about 62% of students from all five years rated their knowledge as being minimal and about 98% reported they would use the information provided in the educational intervention.