Dental caries and oral hygiene in male dental students of king Saud university college of dentistry, Riyadh

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