ABSTRACT
Aim: To assess the knowledge of caries preventive measures for children among clinical medical and dental students in the University of Benin.
Method: A descriptive cross- sessional study was carried out among medical and dental students at the University of Benin, Nigeria. Respondents were selected using systemic sampling techniques. Data was obtained using a structured self-administered questionnaire and was analyzed with IBM SPSS version 22.0. Frequency distribution and cross tabulation were computed for categorical variables. Oral health behavior among respondents, knowledge of caries preventive measures in children were determined.
Results: The age of participants varied from 18-30 years with a mean age of 22.6 ± 5 years. The oral health behaviour of most of the study participants was fair (50.0%), while 33.3% and 16.7% had good and poor oral health behaviour respectively. The knowledge of caries preventive measures for children among the respondents, only 22.3% of the respondents had a high knowledge while about 49.2% had an average knowledge and 28.4% had a low knowledge.
Conclusion: This study showed that the knowledge of caries preventive measures in children is low among medical and dental students and there’s need for a more focused approach to oral health education to ensure the medical and dental students are equipped sufficient knowledge for their future practice.
Keywords: Preventive measures, Dental caries, Awareness, Knowledge, Medical students, Dental students.
