Abstract
Aims: Oral hygiene behaviour is an important predictor of oral health care. There has been research into children`s oral hygiene behaviour, but it has taken place in a small number of countries. The aim of this study was therefore to identify the oral hygiene behaviour of children aged 9 -10 years who attended primary schools in a city in Romania.
Methods: The sample of 9-10- year- old children was selected from three different schools from the Timisoara area. The 443 children who were selected represented the entire population of third and fourth year children from the three schools in 2015/2016. The first school was from a rich neighbourhood (n=118 children). The second one was from downtown (poor neighbourhood) (n=184 children) and the third one from a middle class suburb (n=116 children). Twenty five of the 443 children were excluded because they were found to be 8 years old. This left a sample of 418 children aged 9 - 10 years. They completed a questionnaire with 37 closed and opened questions related to oral hygiene behaviour. The questionnaire had been tested on a pilot sample of 20 children and afterwards optimized and adapted for the study. The school authorities gave their consent for the study. Children whose parents gave negative consent were not examined. The study was given ethics approval by the ethics committee of the University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Victor Babes”, Timisoara.
Results: Three hundred and seventy nine (92%) of the children declared that at least one person had talked to them about oral hygiene. There was a difference between girls 200 (95%) and boys 173 (88%) in the answer to this question.. The person who had given oral hygiene advice was one of the parents 330 (79%), a dentist 268 (64%) and, for only for 32 (8%) of the children another adult or a teacher 54 (13%). As far as knowledge of how to perform good oral hygiene was concerned, 207 (50%) children declared that they knew very well to brush their teeth, of whom 85 (43%) were boys and 118 (55%) were girls. In answer to a question on brushing after each meal: there was a difference between the boys and girls, as 37 (19%) of the boys and 58 (27%) of the girls claimed this behaviour.
Conclusions: In the group studied family or dentists were the most likely people to have advised the children on oral hygiene and there were differences in oral hygiene behaviour between the boys and the girls. It is suggested that more attention needs to be paid to boys when teaching good oral hygiene behaviour.
The presenter of this abstract (3503) received a Borrow Travel Award
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