DENTAL CARIES STATUS AND ORAL HEALTH BEHAVIOUR AMONG UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS IN NIGERIAN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

Dental caries is the most common disorder affecting the teeth. Evaluation of dental caries status provides an opportunity to acknowledge the oral health status of an individual or population. Today's undergraduate dental students are providers of dental services in future and will be responsible for the public's oral health education and oral health status. Hence this study was designed to evaluate the dental caries status and oral health behaviour among undergraduate dental students in Nigerian Universities. The study was a cross sectional survey involving the use of a multi-stage sampling technique to select 812 undergraduate dental students from six Universities namely UI, UNIBEN, UNILAG, OAU, UNIPORT and BUK. Information on socio-demographic characteristics and oral healthrelated knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of the students were collected using a well-structured, self-administered questionnaire. A section of the same questionnaire was interviewer administered to collect information on the number of decayed, missing and filled teeth (DMFT) in the students' mouths. The DMFT index was used to assess the dental caries status. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test and binary logistic regression at 5% level of significance. The mean age of the respondents was 22.0±3.0 years. Many of the students (57.9%) were between 20 and 24 years, 28.1 % were from UNILAG and 17.7% were 300 level students. The overall prevalence of dental caries among the participants was 24% and the median DMFT score was 0.0, with a range of 0.0 - 8.0. Of the 20 questions used to assess the knowledge of oral health of the students, the mean knowledge score was 15.0±3.6. Of the 13 questions used to assess the students' attitudes toward oral health, the mean attitude score was 10±1.8. Of the 16 questions used to assess the students' oral health practices, the mean practice score was 8.7±1.9. Oral health behaviour was influenced by age (p=0.04), study level (p<0.0001) and knowledge of oral health (p<0.0001) of the students. Those in 200 level were 7.2 times less likely to practice good oral health compared to the 600 level students (OR= 0.14, 95% CI = 0.06 - 0.34). The students' dental caries status was influenced by location of study (p<0.0001), and parents' highest educational level (p<0.05). OAU students were 3 times less likely to have dental caries compared to BUK students (OR= 0.34, 95% CI: 0.15 - 0.76). Participants whose fathers had no formal education were 13 times more likely to have dental caries compared to participants whose fathers had tertiary education (OR= 13.308, 95% CI: 2.25 - 78.87). The knowledge of oral health and the attitudes toward oral health among the Nigerian undergraduate dental students were good, but their oral health behaviour was only just fair. Although their dental caries status was very good, bad oral health practices and dietary habits are likely to worsen the status. As part of their curriculum therefore, dental students should start learning about preventive aspects of oral health as early as their first year in the university.