Identification of Teacher Ability and Implementation of Dental and Oral Health Practices in Mental Retarded Children: Pilot Study

Introduction: Empowerment of teachers in maintaining oral hygiene is urgently needed to increase the value of mentally retarded dental and oral hygiene.
Objective: This study aims to identify teacher abilities and implementation of dental and oral health practices in mentally retarded children.
Materials and Method. The design of this study is an observational descriptive pilot study in the context of developing a learning model for dental and oral health in mentally retarded children. The research population was teachers and mentally retarded children at Special Schools in Jambi City. The research was conducted on teachers in 4 (four) special schools (SLB). Data are presented as numbers and percentages for categorical variables.
Results: Before giving the Learning Model for maintaining oral health for mentally retarded children, the respondents had medium-high level knowledge. After the intervention, their knowledge increased to a high level. The dental and oral health learning model is routinely taught in schools. The teacher routinely teaches how to brush teeth; the teacher routinely guides tooth brushing practices; the teacher routinely practices tooth brushing in children. The frequency of carrying out tooth brushing at school is at most once a week.
Conclusion: Most of the teachers' knowledge of mentally retarded children in SS is Poor, and implementation of dental and mouth health practices in Mentally Impaired Children is still low.

Keywords: mentally retarded, dental and oral health, teacher