Oral health knowledge, attitude and Practice among medhanialem preparatory schools Students in addis ababa, ethiopia

Abstract

Introduction: Oral health means much more thanhealthy teeth. It means being free of chronic oral-facial pain conditions, oral and pharyngeal (throat) cancers, oral soft tissue lesions, birth defects such as cleft lip and palate, and scores of other diseases and disorders that affect the oral, dental, and craniofacial tissues, collectively known as the craniofacial complex. oral health can have a significant impact on the overall health and well-being of the nation’s population key elements to be addressed were the determinants of health and disease, with a primary focus on prevention and producing health rather than restoring health; hence the prevention of oral disease should be prioritized in every nation o the world oral health is integral to the general health. So, oral health is more than healthy teeth and you cannot be healthy without. Objective: to assess knowledge, attitude and practice toward oral heath among Medhanialem preparatory school student Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Methods:- Across sectional study was conducted in medhanialem preparatory students from may 25-30/2013 the data was collected by distributing self administered questionnaire for 337 students which were selected randomly from total of 2746 students. The sampling includes grade 11th and 12th students in the school.The collected data was sorted, processed and analyzed by using spss window version and association is form by using chi-square contingency table. The analyzed data was presented by tables, figure and chart. Results: Of total of 337 respondents students, 52.7% were males with sex ratio 0f 1.2:1 The highest percentage of respondents 57.6% were in the range of 17-20 years. Altogether only 17.6% of grade 11 and grade 12 students were cleaning their tooth 2x a day which is the correct the ADA recommendation on dental hygiene. Majorety of the respondent(84.3%) from both class clean their teeth. from those who clean there teeth most of the respondet (58.65) use mefakia as a cleaning material and none of the respondent use dental floss which was consider best cleaning material between two adjacent teeth according to ADA recommendation. Regarding on visiting of a dentist 40.8% visited dental clinic from this only 2.8% of the respondent from both class visit a dentist regularly every 6-12 mouth which was correct according to ADA recommendation. From those who use tooth brush to clean there teeth (22.45%) majority of the respondent(53.1%)change the tooth brush irregularly and only 5.6% change the tooth brush every three month which was correct ADA recommendation. from grade 11 respondents student 32.8% and 37.3% from grade 12 had satisfactory knowledge the rest 67.2.9% from grade 11 and 62.7% from grade 12 had unsatisfactory knowledge with p-value 0.347 which has no significant association with their educational level since p-value >0.05.31.3% of respondents of grade 11 and 38.3% had favorable attitude and 68.7% of grade 11 respondents and 61.2 of grade 12 had unfavorable attitude with p-value 0.143 which has no significant association with educational level. From a total of 337 students ,17.8% of grade 11 and 18.1% of grade 12 respondents had good practice,28.7% o grade 11 and 30.8% of grade 12 respondents had fair practice and the rest 54.5% of grade 11 and 51.1% of grade 12 respondents had poor practice with p-value 0.828 which has no significant association with their educational level. Conclusion: Most of medhanialem preparatory school students had unsatisfactory knowledge towards oral hygiene practice, cause and preventive measures of oral diseases