Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the effect of playful learning interventions (with toys, visual and auditory sources) on appropriate toothbrushing behaviors and the amount of accumulated plaque in preschool children.
Design and methods: The study was carried out as a parallel-group, randomized and controlled study during the period October-December 2018, with 100 preschool children. The preschool students were randomly assigned to an intervention and a control group. The children in the intervention group were given instructions on how to brush their teeth while the children in the control group were not given any instruction outside of what they had learned in preschool. The playful learning interventions that were carried out consisted of three rounds of meetings designed to educate the children about adopting appropriate toothbrushing behaviors.
Results: The study groups were well matched at baseline (p = .537) and the intervention group showed statistically significant improvements in toothbrushing (p = .001) and plaque control (p = .001) following the intervention in comparison to the controls. Additionally, while the amount of plaque decreased in the children in the intervention group (p = .001), plaque increased in the control group after the intervention (p = .001).
Conclusions: This study showed that after the playful learning interventions carried out with the preschool children, appropriate toothbrushing behaviors were acquired and there was a decrease in the amount of plaque.
Application to practice: Nurses who work with preschool children could use toys and songs as effective and entertaining nursing interventions for developing correct toothbrushing behaviors.
Keywords: Pediatric nursing; Plaque indexes; Playful learning interventions; Preschool children; Toothbrushing behaviors.
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