Oral Hygiene Awareness on Patients Attending Dental OPD in A.B. Shetty Memorial Institute of Dental Sciences.

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]