Self-reported Oral Health Knowledge, DMFT status and Oral Hygiene Practices among University students

Abstract

Aim: To assess dental caries knowledge, DMFT status and oral hygiene practices among Science and Non-science University students. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted through a questionnaire that contained sociodemographic information, questions about oral health knowledge (OHK) assessed on Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree). Questions about dental caries, teeth extracted due to caries, and filled teeth while the fourth section questions were about oral hygiene practices (OHP). Data were processed using SPSS (version 21) with significance level of p≤0.050. Results: Four hundred (400) students participated in current study in which 190 students were from science (medicine and pharmacy) and 210 from non-science (education and arts) colleges. Male and female ratio were 185(46.3%) and 215(53.8%) respectively. Overall, oral health knowledge status was demonstrated as non-significant by both science and non-science students except for question regarding transmission of dental caries. A significant difference was observed between gender (p=0.016) for all questions except question 2 (bacteria is the cause of tooth decay). In addition, a significant difference were observed between urban and rural students (p=0.037) for question 2. No significant difference were observed for decayed, extracted teeth and oral hygiene practices between science and non-science students.. Conclusion: Statistically no significant difference in status of knowledge, decayed and missing teeth and oral hygiene practices was observed between science and non-science students, except for filled teeth. However differences among genders and urban/rural was noted. Keywords: Dental caries, Oral health practice, Science, Non-science, University students