Abstract
Aim: Knowledge of oral health is considered as one of the important factors as it influences the oral health related behaviour of an individual and oral hygiene practices in turn affects the oral heath related quality of life. Hence, the main aim of this survey was to assess the knowledge and practices of support staff at dental institute in Maharashtra.
 Study Design: Cross-sectional survey.
 Methodology: The present survey was cross-sectional survey conducted among 103 Support staff of a Dental Institute. The questionnaire consisted of 16 questions which which was distributed. Demographic characteristics, oral health related knowledge and practices were presented using descriptive statistics. Knowledge among different categories of support staff was compared using chi-square test.
 Results and Conclusion: The results of the present study conclude that majority of the participants had a good knowledge about their oral health but were not motivated to utilize dental services which were available to them. The oral hygiene practices lacked the use of supplemental oral hygiene aids.
Highlights
Oral health is a dynamic entity and its apt to say that widest possible array of factors affects oral health in either way
The results of the present study conclude that majority of the participants had a good knowledge about their oral health but were not motivated to utilize dental services which were available to them
The oral hygiene practices lacked the use of supplemental oral hygiene aids
Summary
Oral health is a dynamic entity and its apt to say that widest possible array of factors affects oral health in either way. These factors include genetics, lifestyle, socio-economic status, environment, etc [1,2]. In last two decades marked changing pattern in occurrences of dental diseases are result from change in living pattern, modified dietary habits, effective use of fluorides, improved oral hygiene practices and initiation of prevention based oral health programs for targeted social groups [3,4,5]. Having a positive oral health requires joint efforts from both dentist as well as patients owing to the better knowledge towards healthy oral hygiene practices [6]. Its need of an hour to assess knowledge and practices at baseline and implement some appropriate programs to improve the same
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