Objective: To assess and compare the effectiveness of oral health education methods on oral hygiene knowledge, attitude and status of 7-10 year old school children. Material and Methods: In this experimental study 150 children from different schools participated in the study. Each group of 50 randomly selected children were included in three groups: random allocation of each group was done. Group A: educated with conventional (flash card method) Group B: educated with flash card and game based (connect the dots) method; Group C: Video demonstration method. The oral health interventions were done for three consecutive days. An interviewer based questionnaire was administered to assess their baseline level of knowledge and attitude regarding oral hygiene. The oral hygiene status of children was evaluated using the OHI(S) at baseline and at an interval of 1 week, 2 week, 3 week and a month after the intervention using various oral hygiene aids. Comparison between the oral health status was done for all the three groups. The same questionnaire was administered after the intervention to test the change in knowledge and attitude among school children. Paired t-test was applied to compare pre and post intervention knowledge and attitude scores. ANOVA and Tukey’s Post hoc test were done to compare the OHI-S scores between the weeks. Results: There was a significant difference seen in the pre and post knowledge and attitude scores in all the three groups. A decline in the OHI-S scores seen from baseline to one month in all the three different groups with the Video demonstration group showing highly significant increase in oral hygiene scores (p<0.05) and decrease in debris and calculus scores(p<0.05). Conclusion: The cartoon video animation method and connect the dots game method which includes oral health guidelines including good oral hygiene and dietary habits was an effective and sustainable intervention aids in delivering oral health education messages compared to the traditional flash cards method.
