ORAL HEALTH AWARENESS AMONG DIFFERENT PROFESSIONALS

Dr. Mohit Mangla 1 , Dr. Preeti Sharma 2 , Dr. Nikhil Srivastava 3 , Dr. Monis Raza 4 , Dr. Nida Nafees 4 and Dr. Ankit Negi 4 . 1. Dentist,BDS, FAGE, PGDCR, PGDMLS, Subharti Dental College, Meerut, U.P. 2. Reader, Department of Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery, Subharti Dental College, Meerut, U.P. 3. Professor and Head, Department of Paedodontics & Preventive Dentistry, Subharti Dental College, Meerut, U.P. 4. Dentist,BDS, FAGE, Subharti Dental College, Meerut, U.P. ...................................................................................................................... Manuscript Info Abstract ......................... ........................................................................ Manuscript History


Results:-
The data was processed and analyzed by means of computerized SPSS software 17 version. Frequency tables, percentage, and cross-tables were generated. Chi-square test was used to identify significant relations and differences between oral health knowledge, attitude, and habits among different professionals' students. Statistical significance was based on probability values of less than 0.001 (P<0.001).

Discussion:-
Oral health is an integral part of general health and a valuable asset for any individual. Oral health has always remained a neglected entity. People have underestimated consequences of bad oral health, which have led to bigger problems which later on become difficult to treat. Unawareness regarding our oro-dental health highly depends on one's educational level.
Preventive oral health education is in a transition stage in India [52]. Despite the current emphasis on prevention in dental education, and although there have been some studies of the attitude, habits, and awareness among dental students and dentist, very few studies have focused on the orientation of the attitude, knowledge and awareness among professions other than dental like Medical, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, Engineering and MBA.
To our knowledge, no study exists on the attitude, habits, and awareness towards oral and dental healthcare among different professionals like Dental, Medical, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Pharmacy, Engineering and MBA in Meerut city. Hence this study presented a comprehensive overview of the oral and dental health care among different professionals.
Oral Health knowledge creates a sense for each individual to adopt self-care practices. But it is not necessarily related to better health behavior. [53] In India, television media reaches rural and urban areas. It plays the major roles in creating Oral Health awareness. Paik DI et al [46] also said that television is the best source of information as it is seen by all the members of the family.
Hence oral health knowledge was expected to be good among college students in this study. In the present study, Part 1(Appendix-A) is based on Attitude of various professionals towards oral and dental health care. Statistical analysis of the tabulated results of the present study on attitude based questions revealed most of the Non-Medical students visited the dentist only when there was a dental pain or problem. While medical students and allied field students visited more regularly. While most (41.52%) of the study population in the present study visited 1536 the dentist only in the problem, 33.21% professionals visit a dentist once in 6 months while 12.86% professionals visit once in 3 months and 12.41% professionals once in a year. Simulating these results, a study by Kumar et al 11  (2012) observed that 14.1% of college population visited the dentist once in a year. In the present study 36.33% professionals never visited dentist (high as compared to study conducted by Omiri et al 14 7 and S Kumar 11) , 12.28 % in last 3 months, 25.19% in last 6 months and 26.19% more than year (awareness should be done to meet the dentist once in six months). According to a study by S. Kumar (2012) et al 11 , 58.4% of the undergraduate students had not even once visited the dentist. Rest of the study population visited the dentist for prevention (24.6%), examination (8.6%), filling/extraction (11%) and special treatments such as endodontics, prosthodontics, orthodontics (3.1%).

and Ahmad et al 56 , low as compared to the study conducted by Agiapal Singh
Our results revealed that 28.38% professionals visited a dentist in pain (low as compared to the study conducted by Agiapal Singh 7 and Verra Reddy et al 54 ) followed by dental filling (22.52%) high as compared to study conducted by Omiri et al 14 , RCT (16.42%), only 6.04% professionals goes for general check up (very low as compared to study conducted by Omiri et al 14 ). Dental cleaning among professionals is around 8.14%. 28% of professionals have fear of drill (high as compared to study conducted by Omiri et al 14) followed by fear of needle which is 26.85%( high as compared to study conducted by Omiri et al 14 ), 14.09 % professionals had lack of time, High cost may be one factor among 11.76% professionals (same as compared to study conducted by Omiri et al 14

and very low as compared to study conducted by Ahmad et al 56 ).
Not surprisingly, 92.28% professionals wanted to clean their teeth.
In the present study, Subpart 2 of the questionnaire (Appendix-A) consisted of Habit based questions. Analysis of the data revealed that 94.56% professionals cleaned their teeth with toothpaste(ONLY PEA SIZE IS RECOMMENDED this can be attributed to false perception of the populations that larger amount of toothpaste improves the effect of toothpaste) whereas 77.66% professionals cleaned their teeth once ( high as compared to study conducted by Agiapal Singh and low as compared to the study conducted by S Kumar 11) , 21.57% professionals cleaned teeth twice( high as compared to the study conducted by S Kumar 11) .
Statistically, a highly significant difference was found for the use of Neemstick as compared to other methods like finger and salt, tooth powder, charcoal etc. Dental and Medical students cleaned their teeth twice as compared to other professionals. 37.14% professionals brushed with a soft bristle brush(A high percentage as compared to the study conducted by S Kumar 11) followed by 28.47% with a medium bristle brush. While 64.57% professionals used the horizontal method of brushing, 21.9% vertical and 12.85% combined method of brushing. 52.76% professionals changed their brush when it becomes useless, 23.38% in 6 months and 22.8% in 3 months. Maximum respondents (58.09%) professionals brushed for 1-2min, 40.72% professionals brushed for less than 1 minute(low as compared to study conducted by Agiapal Singh 7 ). 82.9% professionals did not use any interdental aid. Only 3.19% used floss (Flossing does not seem to be a well-known habit [55], it coincides with the present study and it is very low as compared to the study conducted by Ahmad et al 56 ) while 13.33% professionals used toothpick (more common than Floss as 16.8% in study conducted by Kumar et al [57]). 73.57% professionals cleaned their tongue.74.76% did not use any mouthwashes (low as compared to study conducted by Omiri et al 14 ).
In the present study, the use of other recommended oral hygiene methods such as dental floss and mouthwash was found to be rare; this could be due to the lack of oral health education and /or the cost of such aids.
In the present study, part 3 (Appendix-A) consisted of Awareness based questions. The results tabulated showed that 80.9% professionals noticed bleeding and 87.47% professionals understood bleeding gums meant inflamed gingiva (high as compared to the study conducted by Omiri et al 14 ) .83.23% professionals knew about dental caries, 67.8% professionals knew about fluoridated tooth paste. 96.61% agreed that sweets affect the teeth adversely( High as compared to study conducted by Ahmad et al 56 ), 97.8% professionals said early detection of mouth cancer improves chances of care. 94.71% professionals believed that changes in lifestyle can reduce the risk of oral cancer. 57% professionals agreed to the statement that tobacco is the only reason for oral cancer. 67.66% professionals consider smokeless form to be the cause mouth of cancer, 92.04% professionals think smoking form can cause mouth cancer. According to the study, 91.57% professionals think smoking can cause 1537 lung cancer. Only 59.61% professionals agreed that certain systemic diseases can be manifested in the oral cavity, 34.95% professionals do not know the above fact and 5.42% disagree the statement. 41.57% professionals had little knowledge that "Dental care should be started even before the birth of a child prenatal care." Out of the total study population, 66.72% professionals conceded that oral health does not have an influence on the overall quality of life.

Summary and Conclusion:-
In the present study, the level of awareness towards oral health care was marginally high in Dental professionals followed by Medical professionals and fair among other health care professionals like Nursing, Pharmacy, and Physiotherapy whereas it was found significantly low among the nonhealth care professionals like MBA and Engineering.
In spite of having a good level of awareness among Dental and Medical professionals, the habits and attitude towards oral health care were fair whereas among other health care professionals (like Nursing, Pharmacy, Physiotherapy) and nonhealth care professionals ( like MBA and Engineering ) was poor.

Hence, this study concluded that there is a strong need to strengthen the knowledge, awareness, and attitude in all professionals' irrespective of whether health care or nonhealth care.
The various ways to achieve this are:  Emphasis on oral health care should be developed and maintained during early school education in order to improve the oral health knowledge of adults later on.  Incorporate basic knowledge about oral health care in university curriculum for non dental students during their university study.  One day workshop/symposia /Lecture on Basic Oral Hygiene should be organized by the concerning university/college, especially for non dental students.
It is well known that oral health of parents reflects on their children and that their attitude and knowledge affects their children.
Hence, educating adults and university students seems among the means to improve the Oral Health knowledge and behavior of the nation in future.