Assessment of Knowledge of the Relationship between Periodontal Disease and Systemic Disease among Dental Students and Its Impact on Oral Hygiene Practices

Background: Dental students play a role in both oral and general health education in their communities, so it is important that they have good knowledge to enable them offer good counsel. Knowing the relationship between periodontal disease and systemic conditions will put them in better stead when giving oral health education. The aim of this study was to assess the level of knowledge among dental students of the relationship between periodontal diseases and systemic conditions, and to determine whether there was a correlation between this knowledge and their oral hygiene practices. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study among dental students of the University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria. Consenting participants were given a self-administered questionnaire eliciting socio-demographic information, knowledge about the relationship between periodontal diseases and systemic diseases, as well as oral hygiene practices. Each correct response on knowledge was scored as 1, while incorrect responses were scored 0, with a maximum score of 7. Participants’ knowledge was graded as poor (0 - 2), fair (3 - 5) and good (6 - 7). Data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 21. p ≤ 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Spearman’s ranked correlation was used to assess the correlation between knowledge of the relationship between periodontal diseases and systemic diseases and oral hygiene practices. Results: There were 109 dental students (58 males, 51 females) in this study, with a mean age of 24.1 ± 3.6 years. Preclinical students were 43 (39.4%) while clinical students were 66 (60.6%). All (100%) participants knew that oral health was important to systemic health, with 89.9% knowing that periodontal disease was specifically linked to systemic disease. Only 50.5% of participants knew that there was a link between periodontal disease and diabetes mellitus. Sixty-four (58.7%) of the participants regularly cleaned in between their teeth. The most commonly used interdental cleaning aid was toothpick (45.0%). Clinical students had significantly better knowledge on the relationship between periodontal disease and systemic disease compared to pre-clinical students (p = 0.001). There was positive correlation between knowledge about periodontal disease and its link with systemic disease and better oral hygiene practices, but this was not statistically significant. Conclusion: The majority of dental students had a fair knowledge about the relationship between periodontal diseases and systemic diseases.

Dietary Habits and Oral Hygiene Practice amongst Dental Students at the College of Dentistry, Princess Nourah University

The aim of the present study was to assess the dietary habits and oral hygiene practice of dental students in a new dental school. A self-administered structured closed-ended questionnaire on demographic characteristics, medical history, oral hygiene and dietary habits was distributed to dental students. Results showed that One third of students indicated that they don’t consume low pH beverages (soft drinks) at all, while 48.9% drink a soft drink or two a day. Students took varying amount of time to consume their drinks. The majority of participants consumed citric juices, fruits and/or pickles at least once a day. 91.3% of students use either soft (41.8%) or medium (49.5%) toothbrush. Only a fifth (16.9%) of the students brush their teeth after drinking soft drinks and 58.2% brush their teeth after vomiting. In conclusion, young adults need to be aware about their dietary habits & oral hygiene, and also a proper dental health program needs to be applied.