Smart Toothbrush to Get Knowledge and Action of Toothbrushing for Children

Abstract

Health promotion plays an important role in the success of the health service system. In Indonesia, although the DMFT (Decayed, Missing due to caries and Filled teeth) index of primary teeth in the 3-5 age group has decreased since 2018, it is still in the high category, namely 4.9 in the 3-4 year age group, and 6.7 in the 5-year age group. The upgraded health promotion media needs to be conducted. This study creates a smart toothbrush TOMON to teach tooth brushing for health promotion. This study analyzes the influence of TOMON on the knowledge and actions of children regarding tooth brushing and dental health. This study utilized pre-test and post-test with a control group design and analyzed the influence using Wilcoxon and differences value with Mann-Whitney tests. The samples were 16 students of class 3 in SD Al Azhar 14 Semarang, following the Slovin formula. The instrument used for data collection was a questionnaire. The results show that TOMON does not influence the knowledge of the respondents both in the control and intervention groups with p-values of 0.317 and 0.655 respectively. There is also no difference in the value of knowledge. Meanwhile, there is a significant influence on the action with a p-value of 0.018 in the intervention group at the post-test and differences significantly with a p-value of 0.002.  In conclusion, TOMON has an impact on the action of tooth brushing and dental health maintenance and doesn't impact the knowledge.