Aim: The scope of this study was to determine if there is a critical distinction in the usage of lectures, videos, and pamphlets as educational material utilized in the adoption of oral health care knowledge.
Materials and methods: Three-hundred and thirty children from ages 11 to 13 from the city of Split, Croatia completed the questionnaire on oral health care knowledge. Consequently, they were educated by randomly using a method: lecture, pamphlet, or video. Finally, after education, their knowledge was tested again.
Results: Different statistical tests were used for comparison of different sets of data. The Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed a statistically significant difference (p ˂ 0.001) compared to the results before and after education. The Kruskal-Wallis test comparing knowledge outcomes after three different types of education: video, lecture, and pamphlet, showed a statistically significant difference in the final knowledge between groups (p ˂ 0.05). A pairwise comparison between different types of education showed a significant statistical difference between education conducted by pamphlet and video material (p = 0.003) and pamphlet and lecture (p = 0.006). No difference was observed between the level of knowledge acquired through video material education and lectures (p = 0.928).
Conclusion: Videos and lectures as means of education showed equal effectiveness in the adoption of oral health care knowledge, while the pamphlet was a method that proved to be less effective.
Keywords: child oral health; dental caries; dental education; prevention.