Stress and Oral Health Care in Nonhealth-Related Majors

Abstract

The findings of the study illustrated that the college students felt more stress when they had to receive treatment for the sake of oral health, and that they experienced less stress when they took good care of their oral health for preventive purposes. A self-administered survey was conducted on 235 junior college students whose majors were unrelated to health in the region of Jeollanam-do from March 4 to 30, 2015. A total of 27.2% of the respondents had received dental caries treatment, and 48.1% had received periodontal treatment. When the stress of the college students about personality, appearance, families and interpersonal relationship was measured, they were most stressed out about their personality (3.40±0.73). Specifically, they scored highest in the item "It's such a hassle to do something" (3.73±1.20), and scored lowest in the item "I was concerned about someone else's problem" (2.22±1.15). The female students experienced more stress about their appearance, personality, families and interpersonal relationship than the male students. The male students felt more stress about their studies than the female students. The college students who had dental caries and periodontal diseases suffered stress that was above the average level, and the stress level of the group that had scaling experience and/or had received toothbrushing education, namely taking care of oral health for preventive purposes, was more below average than the other group that didn't. In a word, it's urgently required to take measures to prevent college students from having oral diseases, as the students who suffered from oral diseases and received treatment were more stressed out. The implementation and revitalization of systemized educational programs are required to help college students stay away from oral diseases to promote their oral health.

Oral health outcomes and shift working among male workers: A cross-sectional survey

“…Studies on the relationship between job stress and measures of oral health, however, show some sort of controversy. While some studies found that higher level of work stress is associated with poor oral health related quality of life [ 12 , 22 ], and less favorable level of oral health related behaviors [ 23 ], a systematic review found no evidence on the association of work stress with dental caries and tooth loss but some potential association between periodontal disease and work stress [ 24 ].…”