Impact of Eating Habits and Lifestyle on the Oral Health Status of a Casablanca’s Academic Population

Abstract

Introduction: Bad eating habits can have serious impact on oral health. Objec-tives: To study the impact of eating habits and dental hygiene practices on the dental status of students. Methods: Cross-sectional study of 400 students aged 17 and more, from the Ben M’Sik Sciences Faculty. A questionnaire on the so-cio-economic level of the parents, the eating habits, the means of hygiene and the oral health status has been filled in anonymously by the respondents. Uni-variate and multivariate descriptive and comparative analyzes were per-formed by the software SPSS 21. Results: The population’s average age is 20 ± 1.59 years old consisted of 55% of boys and 45% of girls. The breakfast is consumed by 67% of students. 39.58% respondents consume sweetened drinks during the meals and 60% at the end of meals and 66% are snacking during the day. 92% of students say they brush their teeth. The brushing time varies between 1 and 3 minutes. 37% of students do never consult a dentist and 63% in case of dental problems. The prevalence of caries is 66%. There is a positive association between the prevalence of tooth decay and certain eating habits (sweet things consumption (p = 0.08), cakes (p = 0.018) and chocolate (p = 0.019) outside of meals). However, this correlation is negative, when the consumption of these foods is done during meals (p > 0.74). On the other hand, there was no correlation between alcohol consumption and presence of caries (p = 0.172), tobacco consumption (p = 0.319), and socioeconomic status parents (p = 0.733). Conclusion: Oral hygiene and regular monitoring by a dentist with healthy eating habits can have a significant impact on the oral status of students.