Evaluation of health care providers knowledge on importance of preventive orthodontic treatment Original Article

Background:Assessing the knowledge and performance of school health care providers as a means to protect the health of students and identifying barriers to the implementation of oral health programs and the awareness of school health care providers regarding the prevention of oral and dental illness to promote the health of students is important and It is necessary in this research to determine the awareness of health care providers about early orthodontic treatment in Shiraz. Materials and methods: In coordination with the Shiraz General Education Office, health care providers participated in this study. All health care elementary school students in Shiraz were sampled. 113 health care providers were willing to cooperate. Provides information on health care awareness in the field Oral and dental health and dental anomalies were questioned and analyzed by SPSS software using descriptive statistics and Kruskal Wallis test. Results:42.5% of health care providers had good knowledge and 53.1% had moderate knowledge and 4.4% had low knowledge. On the other hand, the level of education, age, work experience and the length of time from the last degree did not have any effect on the level of awareness of individuals. Conclusion:The level of awareness of health care providers in Shiraz, considering their important role of the importance of early orthodontic treatment, was low and there was a need for more courses by dentists with more supervision.