The Evaluation of the Dental knowledge status among the high school boys of Mashhad City in the year 2007

Education of preventing oral diseases has become a major mission to improve oral health of the community. To that end, raising school children's dental knowledge is developed as a cost-effective plan for promoting oral health. The aim of this study was to evaluate the "dental knowledge" level among the high school boys of Mashhad City. This descriptive-analytical study was done cross-sectionally on 782 high school boys. The participants were examined by given questionnaires. The results were statistically analyzed by Mann Whitney, Chi Square and Krusacal Wallis tests. This study showed that only 13.6% of study group had good level of dental knowledge. School children' dental knowledge generally varied across independent factors like the school situation, the school district, the school grade, and the level of parent's academic education. Results of this study proved that oral health knowledge level among school children in Mashhad is still poor and need to be improved. The establishment of a long-term school based oral health education program is highly recommended.