Assessment of oral health behavior and knowledge among dental and medical undergraduates in Chongqing, China

Abstract

Dental and Medical students are professional health care providers in the future, and their self-awareness and behavior of oral health highly affects their oral health education attitude for the general population. The objectives of this study were to investigate oral health behavior and knowledge of dental and medical undergraduates. The oral health behavior and knowledge of 221 dental undergraduates and 325 medical undergraduates in China were investigated through a questionnaire. With grades increasing, the oral hygiene behaviors and knowledge of undergraduates were gradually improved. Dental undergraduates showed better improvement than medical ones. However, for the higher grade students of two majors, not everyone brushed their teeth twice a day for three minutes each time, or used fluoride toothpaste. Very few people used floss, some undergraduates smoked every day. The proportion of dental undergraduates in the three grades who answered all the oral health questions correctly was 7.69%, 65.08% and 78.75% respectively, and the proportion of medical ones was 8.96%, 12.39% and 33.33% respectively. The dental and medical undergraduates’ mastery of oral health knowledge and behavior was undesirable, especially the latter. It is necessary to carry out oral health education for medical undergraduates and even dental undergraduates in various ways from the beginning of freshmen.