Dental Training and Changes in Oral Health Attitudes and Behaviors in Istanbul Dental Students

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the changes that occur in the oral health attitudes and behaviors of dental students in Istanbul, Turkey, during their dental education. The Turkish version of the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI) was distributed among 757 dental students at the Dental Faculty, Istanbul University. The response rate was 72 percent. Chi-square and logistic regression models were used for statistical analysis. The mean HU-DBI score of the clinical students was significantly higher than that of the preclinical students. Preclinical students significantly more often believed that it was impossible to prevent gum disease with toothbrushing alone and worried about the color of their teeth and bad breath. Most of them brushed their teeth with strong strokes, thought the condition of their teeth was getting worse despite daily toothbrushing, and would seek dental care only when symptoms arise. Clinical students more often used disclosing solutions to see how clean their teeth were and complained of bleeding gums. The variation in favorable oral health attitudes/behaviors appeared to reflect the students' educational training experience. The findings of this study highlight the relatively poor oral health behaviors of Turkish dental students, which should be improved by means of comprehensive programs that aim to promote their own dental hygiene practices and preventive oral health knowledge from the start of dental training.Dr.

The level of education and oral health attitudes of the dental students in a governmental university - A cross-sectional study

“…[20] The high percentage of total agree response for all levels was in item-14 which involved "it was impossible to prevent gum disease with only tooth brushing" and this possibly because of their belief that brushing is the most effective method to prevent dental caries. This is very close to the total percentage of agree responses in Peker et al [19] In item-15, half of dental students agreed that they went to the dentist only when there is a pain, which is in agreement with studies conducted in Kuwait, [21] United Arab Emirate, [22] Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, and China. [13] The cost of dental services, fear of pain, previous bad dental experiences, and the time required for frequent visits may be the causes for that behavior.…”

“…This is lower than those reported in Turkey. [19] Moreover, the finding is very close to that in UAE. [18] Less than half of dental students agreed with that they take more time to brush their teeth (item-19), this may be due to lack of awareness about tooth brushing techniques.…”

“…This finding is in agreement with a study in India which had nearly the same response of "agree" for item-12 for all levels. [19] A higher proportion of clinical students reported that "I think I can clean my teeth well without using toothpaste" (item 11) than did the preclinical students; this might reflect the awareness of clinical students about tooth brushing techniques. Also, it may be due to separate topics of brushing techniques was taken in level 4old, but the total agree response of all levels was lower than half, this may due to there are no programs concerned about improving students oral health.…”

Development of an Arabic Version of the Hiroshima University-Dental Behavioral Inventory: Cross-cultural Adaptation, Reliability, and Validity

“…In addition to our reporting of the recommended kappa values and confidence intervals, several other factors attest to the strength of the translation and adaptation process used in this study. Compared with previous reports of testing bilingual reliability on samples of 16-37 volunteers [5,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20], our data are based on 58 bilingual patients fluent in both Arabic and English. In an article discussing the sample size required for pilot studies, the recommended sample size for test-retest pilot studies is 35-40 [21].…”

“…Percentages of positive response were generally similar in both English and Arabic questionnaires for the bilingual respondents (Table 1). More than 50% of the participants answered affirmatively to questions 1, 3,9,13,14,15, and 20, whereas for all remaining questions the majority (>50%) answered negatively. The largest proportion of participants agreed that they worry about having bad breath (question 13, 80.4% and 82.6% in English and Arabic forms, respectively).…”