<![CDATA[Background: Dental caries is one of the most common dental health problems in Indonesia, with a high prevalence in school-aged children. One of the main causes is the lack of knowledge about how to maintain oral health. To overcome this, educational media was developed in the form of a modified snake and ladder game designed to increase student knowledge through an interactive and fun approach. Objective: This study aimed to determine whether the use of a modified snakes and ladders game can improve the understanding of dental caries among fifth-grade students at SDN 10 Sungai Sapih, Padang. Materials and methods: This study used a one-group pretest-posttest design based on previous experimental research. Using a selection approach, 21 fifth-grade students from SDN 10 Sungai Sapih, Padang were became the research sample. The intervention was carried out with dentition cards, and data were collected using ‘RoMu (Rongga Mulut / Oral Cavity) question cards’ as a survey. The Marginal Homogeneity of Test was used to analyze the data, and a significance threshold of p≤0.05 was used. Results: The results showed that the implementation of modified snakes and ladders game media significantly improved students' caries knowledge. The average knowledge score increased from 8.00 before the intervention to 9.33 after the intervention. This score is the average number of correct answers obtained by respondents in the knowledge questionnaire. The results of the Marginal Homogeneity test showed that the increase was statistically significant (p < 0.001). However, the implementation of the media still requires improvements, especially in explaining the game rules and user guides to make them easier for participants to understand, and thus make the learning process more effective. Conclusion: The modified snakes and ladders game media has the potential to be an effective dental health education medium if accompanied by improvements in the aspects of user instructions and game mechanics.]]>
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