Oral Habits during the Lockdown from the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic in the Romanian Population

Abstract

Background and Objectives: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic led to changes in population daily patterns. In order to adapt oral health promotion measures for future similar conditions, the main objective of the study was to assess changes in dental hygiene and eating and smoking habits during the government lockdown in Romania. Materials and Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted immediately after the end of the lockdown and consisted of 800 adult subjects. Data collection was done via an online survey. Participants were divided into two groups: non-medical/dental practitioners (N-M/D group) and medical/dental practitioners (M/D group). Results: An increased use of dental floss from 27% (pre-lockdown) to 30.5% (during lockdown) was identified in the M/D group, while the manual toothbrush usage increased to 64.8% (during lockdown) from 61.7% (pre-lockdown) in the N-MD/group. No significant differences regarding toothbrushing frequency were observed in either group. A change in the number of daily snacks was identified in both groups (3–4 snacks per day: from 11% to 20.2% in the N-M/D group, from 13.1% to 22.2% in the M/D group). The consumption of sweets as a preferred snack was also noticed. A decrease of tobacco consumers was assessed in the lockdown period (from 66.6% to 60.4% in the M/D group, from 68.5% to 61.9% in the N-/M/D group). Conclusions: Oral habits were changed during the pandemic lockdown through the increase in the frequency of the consumption of snacks and sweets and the decrease in frequency of smokers. Only minor changes were observed in oral hygiene.

Changes in oral home care and smoking habits during COVID‐19 pandemic: A cross‐sectional study

“…Smoking cessation or reducing the frequency of smoking was noted in the present study, although only 11% of the participants were smokers before the pandemic. Similar findings were observed in recent studies on Italian and Romanian populations (Cărămidă et al, 2022;Di Renzo et al, 2020) where smoking was reduced among smokers who accounted for 25% and 30% of the total participants, respectively. On the other hand, more smoking was observed among Polish and British populations (Grogan et al, 2022;Sidor & Rzymski, 2020;Tzu-Hsuan Chen, 2020) which was related to increased stress and lack of physical activity during the lockdown.…”

“…This observation was in accordance with those in other studies (Caramida et al, 2022;Keles & Sancakli, 2020) where positive changes in lifestyle and oral home care routine during the pandemic were demonstrated. For example, in two of these studies (Cărămidă et al, 2022;Keles & Sancakli, 2020), the use of manual toothbrushes and dental flossing increased during the pandemic with those adopting such changes being more aware of the relationship between oral health and overall general health. In contrast, other studies (Brondani et al, 2021;Gotler et al, 2022) have shown negative behavior such as decreased timing and frequency of toothbrushing during the pandemic.…”

Evaluation of Oral Health Habits and Gingival Conditions after Covid-19 Lockdown

“…As the pandemic persisted, ensuring adherence to basic oral hygiene and maintaining appropriate oral health behaviors became increasingly arduous. It was observed that adherence to health-promoting behaviors such as regular brushing and exercising had a positive impact on health during the lockdown (29). Conversely, neglect of such routines correlated with detrimental effects on both general and oral health (30,31).…”

Oral Health-Related Knowledge, Attitude and Practice among Patients in Rural Areas around Cluj-Napoca, Romania

“…Some studies [ 17 , 25 ] have reported much lower percentages of patients who use floss, but there are also studies that have reported a percentage of up to 44% of patients who use it [ 26 ]. However, the general opinion is that dental floss used as an addition to interdental hygiene has not been sufficiently promoted in dental education [ 27 ]. However, tooth showers are unknown to all patients.…”