ABSTRACT
The objective of the present study was to determine caries experience, oral hygiene status and practices in male dental students of King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A total of 211 male undergraduate dental students were examined for dental caries and oral hygiene. The information about oral hygiene practices was obtained through a self-administered questionnaire. The prevalence of caries was 95.3%. Mean decayed, missing and filled [DMFT] score in the dental students was 7.97 [SD 4.64] with decay [D] component of 3.59 [SD 3.88], missing [M] component of 0.67 [SD 1.29] and filled component of 3.71 [SD 3.89]. There was no significant difference [p>0.05] between the mean DMFT scores of the students from various academic levels. Only one-fifth [20.9%] of the students had good oral hygiene. The percentage of students with poor oral hygiene significantly [p<0.05] decreased as the academic level increased. The use of toothbrush significantly [p<0.05] increased through senior academic levels, with a majority cleaning their teeth either once [33.2%] or twice [35.1%] daily. It can be concluded that the caries prevalence and severity among the dental students was very high. Only a small percentage of the students had good oral hygiene