Oral health attitudes and behavior among undergraduate students

Abstract

IntroductionOral health behavior is based on an acquired experience and cultural traditions. University education may smooth out cultural differences in oral health practice.ObjectivesOur goal is to study self-reported oral health attitudes and behavior of university students and the cultural basis for it.MethodsWe used the English version of the Hiroshima University Dental Behavioral Inventory to carry out an online survey of 136 university students of Morocco and Russia.ResultsOver half of the students (60.3%) do not feel anxious when visiting a dentist. Most of them take care of their gums (41.2%), teeth color (49.3%) and the degree of their cleanness (38.2%). The overwhelming majority of the students brush their each tooth very thoroughly (62.5%), they regularly examine their teeth in the mirror after brushing them (90.4%). They are well aware that tooth brushing alone cannot prevent a gum disease (63.2%), and they feel concerned about the possibility of having bad breath (73.6%). At the same time, over half of the students (61.7%) put off their visit to a dentist until they have a toothache, which is a negative behavioral factor. We did not reveal any gender or cultural differences between the students of the two countries, which can be regarded as a universalization factor of oral health behavior in young people who get higher education in universities.ConclusionsThe majority of the surveyed Russian and Moroccan university students have similar patterns of oral health attitudes and behavior. This assumption needs verification on a larger sample of students.DisclosureNo significant relationships.