Oral Hygiene Awareness and Practices among a Sample of Primary School Children in Rural Bangladesh.

Md Al-Amin Bhuiyan,Humayra Binte Anwar,Rezwana Binte Anwar,Priyanka Agrawal,Mir Nowazesh Ali

doi:10.3390/dj8020036

Md Al-Amin Bhuiyan, Humayra Binte Anwar + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/dj8020036

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Abstract

Inadequate oral health knowledge and awareness is more likely to cause oral diseases among all age groups, including children. Reports about the oral health awareness and oral hygiene practices of children in Bangladesh are insufficient. Therefore, the objective of this study was to evaluate the oral health awareness and practices of junior school children in Mathbaria upazila of Pirojpur District, Bangladesh. The study covered 150 children aged 5 to 12 years of age from three primary schools. The study reveals that the students have limited awareness about oral health and poor knowledge of oral hygiene habits. Oral health awareness and hygiene practices amongst the school going children was found to be very poor and create a much-needed niche for implementing school-based oral health awareness and education projects/programs.

Highlights

Oral diseases are a big public health problem all around the world
Around 60 (40%) children belonged to households where the head of the family had gone to primary school, 33% had attended secondary school, and 18% completed higher secondary school education and above
For almost all the children, their father was thethe decision decisionmakers makerswere were involved in agriculture-based father was decisionmaker

Summary

Introduction

Oral diseases are a big public health problem all around the world. The prevalence of oral diseases has increased, mainly for individuals from low socio-economic groups [1]. Dental caries is one of the major oral diseases for children, which is caused by dental plaque and is directly related with poor oral hygiene practices. Oral hygiene has mostly remained an ignored and unrealized social problem that has steadily become a huge public health burden [8]. Around 46% of 12-year-old children in a study based in rural Bangladesh reported having bleeding gums and calculus deposits on their teeth [9]. Dental caries was found to be associated with a poor quality of life and low height, weight, and body mass index in previous studies from Bangladesh [5]

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