Association between caries and oral health

habits in male Saudi adolescents.

Alshehab A, Al-Hazoom A, Alsalman A,

Introduction
Dental caries is highly prevalent among adolescents (1).A study have
documented this a highly prevalence of dental problems among Saudi
adolescents (2).
Preventive dental visits and proper oral health practices effectively
reduce the occurrence of these diseases (1). In order to plan successful
public health awareness campaign it is essential to evaluate three
domains related to oral health at the population level, namely
knowledge, attitudes and behavior(3). There are currently inadequate
data regarding the prevalence of dental caries and its associated with
oral health habits (oral hygiene practices and dental visits).
Therefore the aim of this study is to investigate the association
between oral health practices and dental caries among male Saudi
adolescents.

Methods and materials

This cross-sectional study was conducted at alkhober, KSA Intermediate governmental male
school (12-15).Oral examination of the participants was conducted from February to March
2016 .The school of the participants for this study were chosen according to the convenient
sample and the school was informed already regarding the objectives of the study . A
written informed consent was obtained from the school administration and legal guardian
of children involved in the study. A team of 10 members was created, which composed of 3
examiner, 6 recorders and one logistic and organizer, two recorders for each examiner .All
examiners were chosen according to the calibration according to kappa 0.6 . Recorders
distributed questionnaire in Arabic language which was tested for readability and pilot
tested asking about dental visits , oral hygiene practice, parents education and recorded
the data from the examinations for DMFT . .The study was conducted on the schools
ground. Questionnaires were distributed in the school classes and the examinations were
done in a different room equipped with up-right position chairs with disposable mirror,
disposable probe, disposable gown along with disposable masks and gloves and flash light.
This study performed on 400 male schoolchildren representing the age group 12-15 years .
Teeth, which were congenitally missing, were not considered as missing in the DMFT .

Data entered in to Excel files and imported in SPSS for making analysis . Descriptive
statistics used to calculate and display the study outcome. Means and standard deviation
for quantitative variable and frequencies and percent for qualitative.

DMFT

% OF TEETH

45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0

DMFT
D

60
50
40
30

36.5
30.4
22.5

20
10

Participants

10.6

not daily

once

twice

> twice

frequency of brushing

Result
After the 411 participants filled the questionnaire. It showed that
almost half of the mother(47.7) and more than half of the fathers

(55.9)were at a higher level of education. Most of the mothers were

housewives(73.1) and fathers were in private sector(48.3).
The overall prevalence of dental caries in the participants was about
40% (n=157) , missing teeth in the participants were 3.1% (n=12) and
23.7% (n=93) were having filled teeth.
There was no significant difference in caries with frequency of
brushing (p=0.296) , fluoridated toothpaste p value was 0.072, regular
dental visit (p= 0.578), professional fluoride application (p= 0.828),
home fluoride (p = 0.191)

However there was a significant difference with tobacco use (p =0.04).

Conclusion
Although the prevalence of dental caries was found to be effected by
oral hygiene practices, as reported nationally and internationally . we
couldnt find this association in the current study nevertheless we

found a significant association with tobacco use and DMFT in the study
participants.
It would be beneficial to investigate different oral health practices in
details such as brushing technique in future studies.

References:
1- Al Subait, A. A., Alousaimi, M., Geeverghese, A., Ali, A., & El Metwally, A. (2016). Oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior among
students of age 1018years old attending Jenadriyah festival Riyadh; a cross-sectional study.The Saudi Journal for Dental Research, 7(1), 4550.
2- Knishkowy, B., & Sgan-Cohen, H. (2005). Oral health practices among adolescents. A study from family practice clinics in
Israel. International journal of adolescent medicine and health, 17(2), 99-104.

3- Farooqi, F. A., Khabeer, A., Moheet, I. A., Khan, S. Q., & Farooq, I. (2015). Prevalence of dental caries in primary and permanent teeth
and its relation with tooth brushing habits among schoolchildren in Eastern Saudi Arabia. Saudi medical journal, 36(6), 737.