Archives

Introduction: Good oral hygiene plays vital role in maintaining healthy mouth. An outlook of people towards their dentition affects their dental health. The scarce literature on oral health knowledge and behaviours among the population in Bharatpur encouraged us to assess the oral hygiene awareness and practice among patients attending a private hospital in Chitwan.

Objective: To assess the oral health knowledge, practices and attitudes among the patients visiting dental clinic of the hospital.

Materials and Method: A descriptive cross-sectional study with convenience sampling done from April to June 2019 among dental patients of age-group 15-60 years attending Bharatpur Samudayik Hospital. A self- administered questionnaire was used. New patients providing informed consent and responding to all questions were included while those physically disabled, and pregnant women were excluded. Descriptive statistics, frequencies and proportions were reported with Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23 for Mac OS. Ethical approval was obtained from the hospital review board.

Result: Out of 128 participants, only 52 (40.63%) brushed twice daily while 113 (88.28%) used toothpick as interdental aid with 123 (96.09%) visiting dentist only in problems and showing lack of knowledge of oral hygiene awareness and limited knowledge of oral hygiene practices.

Conclusion: It was deemed important to uplift the dental status by not only assessing and rendering the treatment required but equally determining the patient’s oral health awareness level and their attitude towards dental care. A good comprehensible educational program promoting preventive oral health care and correct oral hygiene practice could be beneficial.

Dentistry; healthcare; knowledge; practice; survey.