Oral Health Related Quality Of Life And Periodontal Status Of A Selected Malaysian Adult Population: A Pilot Study

Aim: To assess the oral health related quality of life(OHQoL) of a selected population of Malaysian adults andto compare the OHQoL by periodontal status. Material& Methods: This cross-sectional study comprises aconvenient sampling of fifty subjects from the PrimaryCare Unit, Faculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya.OHQoL was assessed using the Malaysian versionof Oral Health Impact Profile-14 (OHIP-14). Basicperiodontal examination (BPE) was performed on allsubjects to determine their periodontal status. Descriptivestatistics and bivariate analysis were performed. Results:Psychological discomfort, physical pain and psychologicaldisability domains were the most affected dimensions inthis population. Subjects with income levels >RM2,500had higher impacts on their OHQoL as compared to thosefrom other income levels (p0.05). Conclusion:Subjects with high income levels had high impacts ontheir OHQoL. Those with periodontitis experiencedhigher impacts on their OHQoL as compared to those whohad a healthy periodontium or gingivitis and affected awide range of domains of quality of life.

Perceptions Of Dental Stress And Social Support Among Malaysian Dental Students

Objective: To explore the association between socialsupport and stress levels in preclinical and clinical dentalstudents in Malaysia. Method: A cross sectional surveyof dental undergraduate students was conducted at theFaculty of Dentistry, University of Malaya, UniversitiKebangsaan Malaysia and Universiti Sains Malaysia.Stress was measured using the Dental Environment Stress(DES) questionnaire. A DES-32 item was used to measurestress for the clinical students and DES-16 item for thepreclinical students. Four questions were used to measuresocial support. The total stress scores were standardizedfor comparison purposes. Results: A total of 357 (79.7%)preclinical and 417 (71.8%) clinical undergraduate dentalstudents responded to the questionnaires. The clinicalstudents experienced higher stress [mean standardizedDES score = 72.63, SD = 10.64] than preclinical students[mean standardized DES score = 70.19, SD=12.01]. Thetwo most stressful items reported by preclinical studentswere “fear of failing” and “examination and grades”.Among clinical students, the two most stressful items relatedto academic were “completing course requirement” and“fear of failing course” and items related to clinical sessionwere “fear of being barred due to the clinical schedule”and “patients late or absent”. Multiple regression analysesrevealed that low stress levels among preclinical studentswere significantly associated to a lot of contact withstudents of the same course. Conclusion: To some extent,social support does play a role in explaining differences inperceived stress, in particular among preclinical students.

Oral hygiene practices among the visually impaired adolescents

The purpose of this study was to gather information on the oral hygiene behaviour among the visually impaired adolescents. Interview and observation methods were used to collect data. A total of 114 visually impaired adolescents were interviewed and 10 of the interviewees were selected for observation on the actual oral hygiene practices. The mean age of the sample was 16 years old. The sample comprised of 53.5% female, majority were Malays (86.8%) and most of them were from the lower income group. Fifty four percent of the sample had low vision and 45.6% were blind. All of the participants reported that they brushed their teeth daily and most of them brushed twice a day or more. Flossing (6.1%) was not common practice among this group. It was observed that they encountered some difficulties, especially when putting the toothpaste on the toothbrush and also the way that they brushed their teeth could cause detrimental effect to the oral cavity. Thus, they need to be taught on proper oral hygiene care so that they can practice safe oral hygiene care and maintain their own oral health.