Links between oral health and personality at a law enforcement school

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>One of the territories of dental psychosomatics is the link between personality characterisctics and dental status. The aim of the present study was to survey the relationship between temperament and character factors and dental status in police students. It can be hypothesized, that some temperament factors can increase the risk for dental health problems. After dental screening 792 police students completed the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) devised by Cloninger. 57.5% of students rated their own teeth as being in good or very good condition, and only 2.8% as bad condition. In persons rating their dental status as “good”, the average DMFT was 9.23±5.01 (mean±S.D.). In students assessing their own oral health as bad, TCI results showed that a higher percentage of students displayed extravagance, impulsiveness, disorderliness than the overall population. Among the students with good self-assessment but bad teeth, there was a higher percentage of students displaying passivity, low assertiveness, and introversion. The temperament and character factors may have negative consequences for students in an institution which exposes them to high stress level. It may be useful to screen these students using subjective health questionnaires in order to permit more effective efforts to positive health behaviour.</jats:p>