Conference abstract
Management of dental avulsion: awareness of community health officers in Rivers State
Pan African Medical Journal - Conference Proceedings. 2022:13(31).03
Feb 2022.
doi: 10.11604/pamj-cp.2022.13.31.894
Archived on: 03 Feb 2022
Contact the corresponding author
Keywords: Community health officers, dental emergencies, dental trauma, tooth avulsion
Poster
Management of dental avulsion: awareness of community health officers in Rivers State
Nzube Ilochonwu1,&, Omoigberai Bashiru Braimoh1
1Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
&Corresponding author
Introduction: the success of definitive treatment of avulsed teeth is largely dependent on the immediate intervention provided by community health officers who are often the first to see at the primary health care centers. The aim was to evaluate the knowledge of community health officers concerning management of tooth avulsion.
Methods: this was a cross-sectional descriptive study that involved all the community health officers attending a training programme at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. A self-completed questionnaire was employed for data collection. Data was analysed with SPSS v20 and association between variables tested, p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: 33% of the respondents had seen patients with dental avulsion. The respondents with training on dental emergencies were significantly more knowledgeable on dental emergencies intervention (p < 0.001). Regarding immediate intervention to the avulsed tooth, 50.0% of study participants would replant the tooth into the socket and 35.0% would arrest bleeding and discard the tooth. On the urgency of the patient to seek care; 51.0% recommended within 30 minutes and 5.0% after a month, of the injury. The majority (51.0%) of the respondents would store the avulsed tooth in normal saline while transporting it to the dental professional, 20.0% in handkerchief and 17.0% in milk.
Conclusion: the knowledge of the community health officers concerning immediate attention to tooth avulsion was found to be inadequate. They can play a pivotal role in the emergency management of tooth avulsion if they are adequately trained on emergency intervention of tooth avulsion.
Management of dental avulsion: awareness of community health officers in Rivers State
Nzube Ilochonwu1,&, Omoigberai Bashiru Braimoh1
1Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dentistry, College of Health Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria
&Corresponding author
Introduction: the success of definitive treatment of avulsed teeth is largely dependent on the immediate intervention provided by community health officers who are often the first to see at the primary health care centers. The aim was to evaluate the knowledge of community health officers concerning management of tooth avulsion.
Methods: this was a cross-sectional descriptive study that involved all the community health officers attending a training programme at the University of Port Harcourt Teaching Hospital. A self-completed questionnaire was employed for data collection. Data was analysed with SPSS v20 and association between variables tested, p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: 33% of the respondents had seen patients with dental avulsion. The respondents with training on dental emergencies were significantly more knowledgeable on dental emergencies intervention (p < 0.001). Regarding immediate intervention to the avulsed tooth, 50.0% of study participants would replant the tooth into the socket and 35.0% would arrest bleeding and discard the tooth. On the urgency of the patient to seek care; 51.0% recommended within 30 minutes and 5.0% after a month, of the injury. The majority (51.0%) of the respondents would store the avulsed tooth in normal saline while transporting it to the dental professional, 20.0% in handkerchief and 17.0% in milk.
Conclusion: the knowledge of the community health officers concerning immediate attention to tooth avulsion was found to be inadequate. They can play a pivotal role in the emergency management of tooth avulsion if they are adequately trained on emergency intervention of tooth avulsion.
