Background: The frequency of dental trauma in schools is secondary only to accidents at home. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge of first aid in the avulsion of permanent teeth presented by Polish school nurses from different areas.
Methods: A cross-sectional study with the use of a structured self-administrative questionnaire was conducted in 2014 on school nurses working in randomly selected Polish provinces. The instrument consisted of demographic questions, questions referring to nurses' experience and training in dental trauma and questions checking knowledge of first-aid in the avulsion of permanent teeth. The maximum number of points to be scored was eight. Data were analyzed with the Kruskal-Wallis, the Mann-Whitney U and Chi(2) tests with the level of statistical significance at p < 0.05.
Results: The final sample consisted of 164 nurses of which 70.1 % had experience with dental injuries and 45.7 % witnessed a tooth avulsion in pupils. 10.4 % nurses participated in training courses concerning tooth avulsion and 67.1 % of them independently broadened their knowledge. The knowledge of the first-aid management of an avulsed tooth was moderate (4.72 ± 1.95 points). 78.1 % of nurses chose a correct definition of the term of 'tooth avulsion'. Only 7.3 % of them were aware that the replantation could be conducted by any witness of an accident. Saline was most often chosen as a proper transport medium for an avulsed tooth (57.9 %), whereas 16.1 % of nurses indicated milk. 13.4 % of evaluated nurses showed readiness to conduct an immediate replantation. Most respondents preferred calling child's parents and advising them to bring the child to a dentist (63.4 %). The main factor influencing nurses' level of knowledge was self-education (p < 0.001). Being a witness to dental trauma (p = 0.0032) and working in schools with sports classes (p = 0.0423) were positive determinants of improved knowledge. Nurses from large agglomerations had significantly lower knowledge (p = 0.005). The main source of information for self-education was the Internet.
Conclusions: The evaluated nurses were in need of education with regard to the management of dental trauma cases. The Internet should be used to deliver evidence-based knowledge to medical staff working at schools.