Community intervention to modify beliefs, traditions and practices of oral health in Yahya-Abad village

Background: Following a qualitative study on beliefs, traditions, and practices on children’s oral health in one of the countryside of Qazvin, it was shown that the commitment to wrong beliefs and traditions could lead to various problems associated with practice of health recommendations by villagers. Objective: To design a set of guidelines to modify the beliefs, traditions and practices of oral health in Yahya-Abad village. Methods: In this community intervention qualitative research, 50-70 persons in two main groups including mothers and teachers of primary schools participated in educational workshops. Tooth brushes, tooth pastes and dental flosses were distributed among the children and their families. During an eight-month period of continuous oral health education, the effect of this practice was evaluated through focus group discussions. Findings: The educational program used in our study resulted in an increase in level of knowledge and skill about oral health among the study populations. Although the education program was shown to have little effect on beliefs and practices of the study group yet the majority of individuals gave up some unhealthy traditional self-treatments. The distribution of tooth brushes among children made motivation for dental care only for a short time and the teachers failed to properly perform their roles in improving the healthy behaviors of the students. Conclusion: Although increasing the knowledge of parents and teachers in promoting the degree of oral health is necessary however this alone seems to be inadequate to achieve desirable healthy behaviors.