Abstract
Background: Adolescents are at high risk of poor sexual and oral health. We investigated for sexual risk factors associated with caries experience and gingival health among adolescents in Nigeria. Methods: This cross-sectional study collected data from 10-19-year-old adolescents in Ile-Ife, South-West Nigeria through a household survey conducted between December 2018 and January 2019. Information collected included age; sex; socioeconomic status; sexual practices (vaginal, oral, anal sex); sexual (transactional sex, multiple sex partners, condom use at last sexual intercourse) and oral health (frequency of tooth brushing, use of fluoridated toothpaste, dental service utilization in the last 12 months, consumption of refined carbohydrates in-between meals) risk behaviors; caries experience; and gingival health. Logistic regression was used to determine associations between explanatory variables (sexual and oral health risk behaviors) and outcome variables (caries experience and gingivitis). Results: There were no significant associations between caries experience and history of sexual intercourse (OR:1.00); condom use at last sex act (OR:0.68); and having one (OR:2.27) or more sexual partners. Also, there was no significant association between moderate/severe gingivitis and a history of anal (OR:2.96), oral (OR:2.69), or vaginal (OR:1.40) sex; and a report of having one (OR:1.71) or more (OR:2.57) sex partners. Conclusions: Some sexual health risk indicators insignificantly increase the risk for caries and moderate/severe gingivitis. Screening for sexual risk behaviors during dental care may be a suitable wellness programs approach for adolescents.
Highlights
Adolescence increases the risk for periodontal disease and gingival inflammation, due to multiple hormonal changes[1]
We found that having one sex partner in the last year was associated with higher odds of having caries and moderate/severe gingivitis compared to not having a partner; condom use in the last sex act was associated with lower odds of caries experience; having more than one sex partner was associated with higher odds of having moderate/severe gingivitis compared to those without a partner; and having anal, vaginal and oral sex was associated with higher odds of having moderate/severe gingivitis
We found no association between caries experience, and moderate to severe gingivitis and sexual health risk behaviors
Summary
Adolescence increases the risk for periodontal disease and gingival inflammation, due to multiple hormonal changes[1] It is a period where adolescents experiment with sex, and a high proportion of adolescents experience oral sex as their first exposure to sexual activity[2,3,4,5]. We investigated for sexual risk factors associated with caries experience and gingival health among adolescents in Nigeria. Information collected included age; sex; socioeconomic status; sexual practices (vaginal, oral, anal sex); sexual (transactional sex, multiple sex partners, condom use at last sexual intercourse) and oral health (frequency of tooth brushing, use of fluoridated toothpaste, dental service utilization in the last 12 months, consumption of refined carbohydrates in-between meals) risk behaviors; caries experience; and gingival health.
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