Socioeconomic status and oral health care attitudes: a snapshot of Karachi based teaching hospital

ABSTRACT

The objective of the study was to analyze oral hygiene practices amongst population of Karachi based on frequency of dental visits, brushing, flossing, pan chewing, smoking, miswak and its relation with socio-economic background. A questionnaire based study was designed to collect information regarding above mentioned variables in 994 patients at OPD providing dental care in a teaching hospital. Subjects were categorized as Blue collared, white collared and the small business holders. The study found the statistcally significant relationship between the frequency of dental visits, miswak usage and the pan chewing with the socioeconomic class. The trend of visiting a dentist without complaint was not common as 34% patients in all were visiting a dentist for the first time, 62% visited when needed, 4%visited once a year for general dental checkup without complaint. Tooth brushing was common tooth cleaning method 69% used tooth brush once daily,13% brushed twice daily while 18%never used a toothbrush at all. The use of miswak alone or in addition to brushing in our study was frequently seen, as 43% subjects used miswak daily and 384 subjects were habitual pan chewers who mainly belonged to the blue collared class [P < 0.01]. We conclude that there is remarkable difference in current oral hygiene habits among, socio-economic levels. The low literacy rate in the low socioeconomic class is also a barrier for the development of the health seeking behavior and attitude among the population. This could be improved by the availability of Primary dental health program as part of general health policy