A Cross-sectional Comparative Study on perception of Oral Hygiene of the Patients Visiting the Dental OPD of a Dental College of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to determine the perception of Oral Hygiene habits and Oral Hygiene Index-Simplified. (OHI-S) in patients coming to the outpatient department of Sardar Begum of Dental College, Peshawar for routine dental check-ups and treatment.

Material and methods: This cross-sectional/comparative study was conducted for One Year, after the acceptance of the research proposal (Jan 2022-Jan 2023) at the outpatient department of the Sardar Begum Dental College Peshawar KPK. The demographic details (residence, age, gender, occupation) etc. were recorded on a specially designed performa. The age limit was from 20-40 years. The patient was interviewed properly for oral hygiene habits and level of education in oral health and hygiene. The oral examination was performed with a dental explorer on the surfaces of posterior and anterior teeth to calculate the oral hygiene index-simplified (OHI-S). The anticipated population proportion, using the study of Lea ¹¹ is 0.86 with a confidence interval of 95% and a margin of error of 0.05 the sample size calculated was 185 subjects. The SPSS version 16.0 (IBM, SPSS) was used to derive the frequency and percentages for all numeric variables. The chi-square test was used to determine the significant relationship for different age groups between both genders

Results: The male-to-female ratio was found to be 1.3:2, with more female patients visiting for oral health problems. Most of the patients belong to urban areas The most common age group presenting for oral health issues belongs to 21-25 years (n=50, 27.0%). The Mean/SD for the age group was 19.86±10. The most common dentifrice used by both genders was toothpaste (148, 80.0%) of fluoridated type (133, 89.86%). The frequency of tongue (123, 66.50%) and interdental cleaning (100, 54.10%) was not followed by most patients. The last dental check was done more than a year ago by the majority of patients (116, 62.70%). Among 185 patients, the oral hygiene index was mostly found to be fair oral hygiene (78, 42.2%). The inter-examiner and intra-examiner Kappa statistics were greater than 0.87 (substantial agreement) for OHI-S recorded in all subjects, which is satisfactory for this oral health evaluation for both genders.

Conclusion: Females were found to be more conscious of oral health issues and visited the dental setups for regular oral checkups more than males. The mean age group was 19.86±10. The frequency of tongue and interdental cleaning was ignored by both genders. The dental checkups were routinely followed after a year. OHI-S was recorded to be a fair type among both genders.