Oral health attitude, knowledge and practices of dental students- A Questionnaire study

Objectives: To evaluate the oral health knowledge, attitude and practices of undergraduate dental students and also to correlate the difference between the students of clinical and preclinical courses. Methods: The study was conducted among 203 dental students, using English version of Hiroshima University - Dental Behavioral Inventory (HU-DBI) questionnaire consisted of 30 questions with multiple choice regarding oral health attitude, knowledge practices. Results: Among 203 participants, 100 participants (49.3%) belong to preclinical year of study and 103 (50.7%) from clinical year of study. Mean per question was higher in clinical year students when compared to preclinical year students, indicating the improvement in the attitude with the progress in the academic years which was statistically highly significant (p<0.001). Conclusion: The overall knowledge and behaviors of oral health among dental students was found to be satisfactory and it found to increase with increasing level of education. This may be due to the year wise education of the clinical knowledge among dental students. Hence, there is a need for implementation of more preventive programs immediately on oral health promotion which can further help in increasing the knowledge, attitude and practices of the students.