Dental and Oral Problems among Diabetic Patients: A Developing Country Local Perceptual Study

Abstract

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a metabolic disorder that is globally considered as a commonly encountered, non-communicable disease. Aim: The main study objective was to gauge how a section of diabetic patients in a developing nation does perceive the general complications of DM with a special emphasis on the oral health. It also aimed to evaluate their knowledge and practice of oral hygiene and dental health care in general. Methodology: A cross-sectional Arabic language questionnaire-based study was performed. It included 24 questions. Study sample was those diabetic patients attending the different themes of the university health outpatients clinics. It included patients, suffering from type 1 or type 2 diabetes. Obtained data were statistically analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences for version 26.0. Armonk, NY, IBM Corporation. Results: Nine hundred and eighteen diabetic patients were included in the study. They were 507 females and 411 males the female-to-male ratio of 1.2–1. Their average age ranged from 10 up to 68 years. Studied sample showed 532 illiterate patients (58%). The remaining 386 literate ranged from elementary education up to university. Five hundred and seventy patients (65%) suffered of DM for more than 12 years. Among the total studied 918 patients, 165 (18%) were smokers. Three hundred and seven patients (40%) were highly oriented with the dental and oral complications of diabetes with different perceptual levels. Conclusion: Although DM patients are highly susceptible to suffer of an increased risk of developing dental caries, their knowledge and perception dental health was deficient. However, most of them attained satisfactory knowledge about different. Medical complications of diabetes and the effect of DM on the body systems. There overall practice of oral hygiene is found to be good. Despite the limited sample size of the current study, it highlighted the necessity of inaugurating a more intensive community educational program to educate the general population about the general health complication of DM with a special of focus on oral and dental health. It is recommended to carry other similar studies with higher numbers in the future to assure the efficacy of public educational programs.