DENTAL HEALTH SELF CARE AMONG SCHOOL GOING CHILDREN OF PESHAWAR
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Objectives: To assess the knowledge of oral health, practices/care of oral hygiene and pattern of dental problems
among school going children of Peshawar.
Material and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted during September, 2016 and October, 2016. A total
of 400 children from three different schools of Peshawar with age range 12 to 17 years were evaluated. A pre-designed/
pre-tested questionnaire was used to collect the data. The major questions asked were regarding the knowledge of
oral health, self dental care, and about dentist visits. Then dental examination was performed by the trained dentists.
The data was analyzed with standard statistical methods.
Results: Male to female ratio was 3.2:1 in the current study. The overall level of oral health knowledge was found below
the standard level among the participants. The frequency of toothpaste, brushing once a day was observed in 62.75%
and two times per day in 9.75% children. Only 09% school children had visited the dentists within the past 6 months.
Dental caries was found the most common dental problem (27.5%) followed by the plaque (20.25%) while fluorosis
was least common (1%) in our study subjects. The prevalence of sensitivity, bleeding gum, malocclusion and tooth
loss was 5.25%, 2.75%, 10.25% and 4.75% respectively. Females and higher class students were found comparatively
more careful regarding the oral health and dentist visits.
Conclusion: The knowledge and practices cum care of the school children of this particular area related to oral health
is below satisfactory level.
Article Details
All articles published in the Journal of Medical Sciences (JMS) are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0). Under the CC BY 4.0 license, author(s) retain the ownership of the copyright publishing rights without restrictions for their content, and allow others to copy, use, print, share, modify, and distribute the content of the article even for commercial purposes as long as the original authors and the journal are properly cited. No permission is required from the author/s or the publishers for this purpose. Appropriate attribution can be provided by simply citing the original article. The corresponding author has the right to grant on behalf of all authors, a worldwide license to JMS and its licensees in all forms, formats, and media (whether known now or created in the future), The corresponding author must certify and warrant the authorship and proprietorship and should declare that he/she has not granted or assigned any of the article’s rights to any other person or body.
The corresponding author must compensate the journal for any costs, expenses, or damages that the JMS may incur as a result of any breach of these warranties including any intentional or unintentional errors, omissions, copyright issues, or plagiarism. The editorial office must be notified upon submission if an article contains materials like text, pictures, tables, or graphs from other copyrighted sources. The JMS reserves the right to remove any images, figures, tables, or other content, from any article, whether before or after publication, if concerns are raised about copyright, license, or permissions and the authors are unable to provide documentation confirming that appropriate permissions were obtained for publication of the content in question.