Background: Tanzanian primary school teachers have long been utilised as oral health educators but little is known about their level of participation.
Objectives: To asses the participation of primary school teachers as general and oral health educators.
Design: Cross-sectional, using structured self-administered questionnaires.
Setting: Rural and urban Primary Schools in Rungwe District, Mbeya Tanzania.
Participants: Primary school teachers from 15 rural and 4 urban schools.
Main outcome variables: Provision of oral health education.
Results: Teachers with primary education, who are teaching in lower grades were significantly more active in providing general and oral health education (OHE) than those with secondary education and who teach pupils in higher grades.
Conclusion: Oral health education seems to be given mainly to primary school pupils in lower grades; teachers involved in oral health education provision were mainly female juniors in the profession and relatively young by age (below 40 years old).
Recommendation: There is a need for influencing teachers of pupils in higher grades and males to be involved in oral health education programmes throughout their teaching profession.