Assessment and Evaluation of Patient's Practice, Perception and Awareness of Dental Care among Chennai Population: A Cross-sectional Study

Author: Christeffi Mabel R., Jagannatha G.V., Priyanka G., Vincy Preetha and Madhubala S.

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Abstract

In the past, there has been a lack of public recognition of the decline in oral health, widespread acceptance of diseased mouths, broad occurrence of oral disorders, and a lack of affordable oral health-care services. The aim of the study was to assess and evaluate the practice, perception, knowledge, and awareness on dental care amongst patients reporting to Chettinad Dental College and Research Institute, Chennai which in turn contributes to oral health awareness education and understanding the existing scenario of oral health knowledge. This study seeks to analyse patients’ attitude towards dental care, both optimistically and critically. This was a cross-sectional study which involved completion of a pretested, validated structured questionnaire in both English and vernacular language by the 278 participants who attended Chettinad Dental College and Research Institute. The survey consisted of 17 closed-ended questions comprised of practice, perception and awareness-based questions. Among all the 278 study participants, only 25% of them believed that cleaning teeth at least twice a day, replacing the toothbrush once in three months, using mouth rinse and visiting the dentist once in six months was necessary. Most of the participants agreed that their dental problems had reduced due to the periodic dental visit, periodic scaling had improved their oral health, oral health care is more important as that of the general health care and also general health can be compromised due to dental diseases. About 48.6% of the participants did not have any concern regarding the radiographic exposure and 34.9% of them disagreed that dental pain can be treated by medications itself. Majority of the participants were not aware of variety of dental treatments available, dental radiographs and recent advancements in dentistry. Our study results showed that dental health perception among the participants was better compared to dental practice and awareness. Henceforth, the introduction of educational interventions should enhance the dental care literacy among the general population.

Keywords

Oral health awareness, oral hygiene practices, dental treatment, health education

Conclusion

The findings of this current study highlight that dental health perception among the study population is better whereas the awareness and practices are poor and needs to be improved. According to this, public knowledge of broad systemic disorders is much more widespread than that of general dental health care. Additionally, the media has a big impact on how the general public views systemic health care, which can be strengthened to raise awareness of the need for dental care as well. Health education attempts to improve awareness thereby change behaviours by altering the individual’s oral health practice. Hence, periodic comprehensive oral healthcare programs should be conducted by the professionals for the general population targeting community and schools. To enhance dental practices and raise awareness of the need to maintain acceptable oral health standards, well-structured dental health education programmes must be initiated by the government in rural as well as urban developed and implemented on a regular basis.

References

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How to cite this article

Christeffi Mabel R., Jagannatha G.V., Priyanka G., Vincy Preetha and Madhubala S. (2023). Assessment and Evaluation of Patient's Practice, Perception and Awareness of Dental Care among Chennai Population: A Cross-sectional Study. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 15(6): 437-441.