Self-reported oral hygiene practice and utilization of dental services by dental technology students in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

Abstract

Dental technology students are Dental surgery technicians under training, trained to assist patients maintain good oral health. Hence, their oral hygiene is expected to be optimal. To determine the oral self-care practices and pattern of utilization of dental services among dental technology students. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study, consisting of 109 participants. The questionnaire had three sections. Section A had questions on sociodemographic, section B was on self-reported oral hygiene practices and section C was on pattern of dental service utilization. Statistical analysis was done using the SPSS version 20.0. The mean age was 23.66 years; age range was 18 - 42 years. There were 20 males and 89 females, 95.41% of the participants used toothbrushes and paste, while 4.59% used both chewing sticks and toothbrushes. 22% used horizontal/scrub method of toothbrushing, 10.1% used modified bass method, whereas 5.0% do not know which method of toothbrushing they use. 81.3% of the participants had visited the dentist previously for routine dental check-up while 10.71% visited for dental pain. The self-reported oral hygiene practice of the dental technology students is commendable, however, further education on the importance of scaling and polishing is advocated.