Objective: To assess the knowledge, attitudes and practices of caregivers in Kuwait in relation to the oral health of preschool children. Subjects and Methods: Questionnaires with multiple-choice questions were distributed to 334 caregivers of children under the age of 6 years attending vaccination centers in Kuwait. For each question, one of the multiple-choice answers was consistent with the consensus in the pediatric dental literature in relation to early childhood caries prevention, and was considered to be correct. The χ² test, independent t test, ANOVA, and stepwise linear regression were used to assess the associations between the variables in question and p ≤ 0.05 was accepted as statistically significant. Results: Of the 334 participants, 234 (70%) were between 20 and 40 years of age with a high school diploma or higher degree and had between 2 and 5 children. The mean knowledge score was 4.68 ± 1.87, the mean attitude score was 4.34 ± 0.88 and the mean practice score was 2.45 ± 0.99. Major weaknesses were reported in infant oral health-related concepts. Mothers had better knowledge than other caregivers (p < 0.001). Higher education was significantly associated with better knowledge (p = 0.003) and better practices (p = 0.017). In addition, knowledge, attitude and level of education were positively and significantly associated with practices (p < 0.005). Conclusions: Our study showed that caregivers had weak knowledge and practice in relation to the oral health of preschool children. Mothers and caregivers with higher education had better knowledge and practices. Education and attitude appeared to be favorable indicators of the caregivers’ practices with regard to the oral health of their preschool children.

The Dental Trauma App alone is an effective means of providing accessible knowledge to guide laypeople in managing tooth avulsion, and it can be superior to a lecture-based delivery of information.

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This study highlights the importance of assessing both systematic and random sources of examiner agreement to correctly interpret kappa measures of reliability.

Younger people and those with higher education can be effectively targeted through the Internet, while it is more effective to target older people through TV. Information, on tooth avulsion management, given by health care professionals is preferred across all population segments.

–  The objective with this study was to search for and to analyze the presence of scientific papers, guidelines, and recommendations in dental literature regarding which radiographs should be prescribed after a dento‐alveolar trauma. We know from earlier that guidelines and recommendations are available in general in dental traumatology. The International Association of Dental Traumatology (IADT) has earlier developed guidelines for the management of dental trauma cases in general. There are also recommendations about useful intraoral radiographic methods when caries and periodontal disease are studied. An additional objective was to provide some guidelines for general practitioners about the most accurate radiographic examination immediately after a dento‐alveolar trauma using intraoral radiographs or a common extraoral imaging method. Because radiographs are an important diagnostic tool for establishing a correct differential diagnosis after a trauma, radiographic guidelines and recommendations are of importance to be able to start the correct treatment. PubMed Central, Cochrane and World Wide Web were searched and the identified existing guidelines for different intraoral radiographic methods in dentistry were analyzed and found to be very few. Those that were identified were in general not so detailed and specific. In conclusion, we found an explicit need for more detailed guidelines regarding which intraoral and other dental radiographs should be prescribed initially in dental traumatology.

ObjectivesThis study assessed dentists’ intention in eight Arab countries to report suspected exposure to violence among patients and factors associated with this intention based on the theory of planned behaviour.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016 including a convenience sample of dentists practising in public, private and academic sectors in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Respondents answered a self-administered questionnaire collecting information about personal and professional background and perceived ability to identify victims of violence. The questionnaire assessed (on a scale from 1 to 10 using six negative statements) dentists’ perception of healthcare system mandated reporting of suspected violence. Six statements were used to assess professional attitude towards reporting suspected violence. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between intention to report suspected violence and perceived ability, perception and attitude adjusting for confounders.ResultsThe response rate was 65.2% (n=2936/4506) from general practitioners (70.9%) of mean age=31 years with 56.7% women. Of those, 68.8% intended to report and 52.2% considered themselves able to identify violence victims. The mean (SD) negative perception score=5.3/10 (2.1) and the mean (SD) professional attitude score=7.5/10 (1.9). In multivariate regression, intention to report was associated with professional attitude (OR 1.08, 95% CI 1.03 to 1.14), ability to identify violence victims (OR 1.76, 95% CI 1.45 to 2.12) and negative perception that reporting is not mandated (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.85 to 0.94). Significant differences existed among countries in intention to report.ConclusionMost dentists intended to report suspected violence and their intention could be explained by the theory of planned behaviour which offers a framework for professional development to support violence victims. Sharing of training resources, policies and guidelines is needed to ensure that practices similar to international guidelines are consistently adopted by dentists across Arab countries.

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