SELF-PERCEIVED ORAL HYGIENE AND PERIODONTAL HEALTH AMONG DENTAL AND MEDICAL STUDENTS, DENTISTS AND PHYSICIANS IN KSA

Dental Students, Medical Students, Dentists, and Physicians play a crucial role in community oral health promotion. Hence it is essential to know about their understanding of periodontal health and oral hygiene practices. This study aimed to evaluate oral health awareness and hygiene behavior related to gingival health. A cross-sectional survey investigated selfperceived oral hygiene and periodontal health among dental students, medical students, dentists, and physicians in Saudi Arabia. An online questionnaire consisting of five items on demographics and nineteen questions on oral hygiene and periodontal was distributed to the targeted population utilizing various social media platforms. The relationship between the categorical variables was assessed using the Chi-square test. Study sample consisted of 637 participants with 154 dental Students, 101 medical Student, 276 dentists and 106 physicians. Tooth brushing variables such as teeth cleaning method, brushing frequency, brushing duration, changing toothbrush brushing strokes, type of toothbrush differed significantly across various groups of study (p<0.05). Tongue cleaning, dental visits, and use of inter-dental aids also demonstrated significant variations among different field of participants (p<0.05). Similarly periodontal diseases perception showed a statistically significant difference across study groups (p<0.05). Dentist and dental students had a better oral hygiene regimen, especially regarding interdental cleaning and brushing frequency. Interdental cleaning was not perceived as important as tooth brushing amongst the physicians and medical students groups as the majority believed that brushing alone can prevent gingival diseases. Severe gingival problems were more perceived by the physicians and medical students.