Evaluation of oral hygiene consciousness, attitudes and behaviors and periodontal awareness levels of faculty of dentistry students

Periodontal disease is one of the most important public health problems worldwide and its global burden still continues. Poor oral health has a major impact on quality of life and there is a worldwide need for public health promotion programs that improve oral health behavior. Oral health professionals have important duties in improving oral health, raising periodontal awareness and patient education. For this reason, it is important for dentistry students to receive a good education, have periodontal awareness and develop their own oral hygiene awareness, attitudes and behaviors. In our study, a questionnaire was prepared for students studying at Istanbul University Faculty of Dentistry, questioning their oral hygiene routine and habits, and periodontal awareness. The internationally accepted Hiroshima University-Dental Behavior Inventory (HU-DBI) was also included in the survey to analyze the behavior of students, which was also used in previous studies. The collected data were evaluated statistically, it was observed that as the grade levels of the students increased, their oral hygiene habits improved positively, the level of periodontal awareness increased, and the HU-DBI score increased. When the significance relations between the genders were examined, it was seen that female students were more conscious of their oral hygiene habits than male students (p<0,01), while there was no significant difference in periodontal awareness knowledge levels. It was observed that the HU-DBI score was higher in the students in the clinic, with a high level of periodontal awareness and with improved oral hygiene habits (p<0,01, p<0,05). It was observed that with the increase in the education level, the oral hygiene habits of the students improved positively, the level of consciousness increased, their periodontal awareness and knowledge level increased (p<0,01, p<0,05). Key Words: Dentistry student, oral hygiene consciousness, oral hygiene habit, periodontal awareness