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Background-Oral hygiene is highly personalised concept and major public health concern that relies on an individual's culture and socio-economic status. Hence, it is imperative that health services should be made available to all rural/semi urban areas as well. Thus it is important to create awareness through various public health programs regarding oral hygiene and its effects on general health in order to change the total perspective of the patients towards dental problems to lead a healthy quality life. Objective-Thus the aim of this study is to assess the oral hygiene awareness and their knowledge on different oral hygiene practices. Materials and Methods- A total of 369 patients participated in the study. The patients were interviewed on questionnaire basis. A self-reported questionnaire consisting of 26 multiple choice questions written in English were given to the patients. Statistical analysis-Descriptive statistics such as frequency and percentage was used to assess the oral health awareness and oral hygiene practice among the subjects who are attending A.B Shetty Memorial Institute Of Dental Sciences, Derlakatte, Mangalore. Results- The result of this study showed an acute lack of oral hygiene awareness and limited knowledge of oral hygiene practices. Most of the patients were not aware of the relationship between systemic and general health. Conclusion- Hence there is an urgent need to educate and motivate the patients for better oral hygiene awareness and practisesand conduct various health programsforthesame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Human being ingests a large number of livingmicroorganisms, predominantly bacteria. Although these organisms are naturally present ( 1) in food and water, they can also be deliberately added during the processing of foods . For several decades now, bacteria called Probiotics have been added to some foods because of their beneficial effects on human health. Several clinical studies have already demonstrated the effectiveness of certain probiotics in the treatment of systemic and infectious disease such as diarrhea, crohns (2) disease, cardiovascular diseases, oropharyngeal infections and cancers . Potential application of probiotics for oral health has recently attracted attention of several teams of researchers. The concept of probiotics therapy has been considered for application in oral health. Dental caries, periodontal diseases and halitosis are among the oral disorders that have been targeted.Hence, this section gives a brief idea of probiotics and its application in oral health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]