Awareness of Oral Hygiene and Esthetic Vigilance among Youngsters: A Web-based Study

INTRODUCTION

In modern society, a pleasing esthetic appearance has become a high priority along with oral health. The facial profile and the oral structural alignment are one of the first features people look at; a pleasant smile is a key factor for attraction. But people’s perception of oral health and esthetics has been seen to vary from one individual to another as every other individual has a different point of view with the prospects of health and appearance. Some people comply better with oral health care regimens and some with esthetics. Lack of awareness of dental procedures are reasons for non-adherence to oral care practices among youngsters.¹ Hence, proper oral care knowledge is a must to avoid oral complaints in the future. A web-based study has its advantages of easy data collection, recording, and maintenance of data for statistical analysis, being cost-effective and in less time. So, the present study was conducted to assess the oral hygiene and esthetic awareness among youngsters and to increase knowledge on dental procedures.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

“Oral Health for a Healthy Life” was the theme declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) on World Health Day 1994.² Complete oral health with disease-free teeth and supporting tissues are considered important. A healthy set of teeth and gingiva also form an important part of what is now known as facial esthetics.

It is a known fact in India that oral hygiene is considered less important and has mostly remained ignored, unimportant, and unrealized. Most of the systemic diseases show their first signs and symptoms through the oral cavity and they remain undiagnosed or untreated because of this missing awareness.

Gingival esthetics is an important component of an attractive smile. Esthetic restorations surrounded by unesthetic gingival tissue can harm a smile and one’s confidence. Gingival tissues are the most pleasing with little exposure to keratinized and mucosal tissue. The excessively exposed gingiva can distract from the overall appearance, regardless of the good appearance of other elements. Youngsters who are considered as the future of India are studied to help them in attaining oral hygiene and care about esthetics by creating awareness but their busy lifestyle and frequent migrations for study or professional purposes would be a limitation for them to attain the same.

Circulating through Gmail and WhatsApp is handy to all as smartphones are ruling the world and available to everyone, this approach can reach a wide number of people. A limitation of this approach is the easy forwarding nature of people which makes the questionnaire accessible to any individual and replies from the unwanted members of the study.

The commonly reported frequency for oral hygiene practices is 1–2 times a day. In this study, only 27.6% reported to brush twice daily which is in accordance with the study done by Kapoor et al., and Jain et al., who reported low proportions of 25 and 23% of their studied population,^1,3 contradicting to this were the studies were done by Dilip among Police recruits,⁴ Jiang et al. among the Chinese urban adolescents⁵, Al-Shammari et al. among the Kuwaiti adults,⁶ and Zhu et al. among the middle-aged and the elderly Chinese adults in urban areas⁷ who reported 58, 67, 62, 50, and 75% proportions, respectively.

The present study showed that 77.6% of the studied population clean their tongue. 57.7% rinse the mouth after intake of any type of meal, only 29.3% of the subjects use mouthwash. Whereas in a study by Kapse et al.,⁸ 84% of individuals had developed the proper habit of cleaning the tongue and 71% rinse their mouth after the meal in their daily routine, 25% of participants use mouthwash, and 67% did not use mouthwash even 7% individuals not even known about mouthwash. This shows a lack of awareness.

Our study showed that 31.7% of the subjects visit a dentist in times of need, among other studies Al-Beiruti,⁹ in 1997, reported 69.5% of the participants to visit a dentist only when they have pain. In a study done by Ganesh et al.¹⁰ on oral health awareness and oral hygiene status of 12- and 15-year-old children in Chennai 40.7% of the children had never visited a dentist. Varenne et al.¹¹ in 2006 in Africa in their study, 93% of the children and 90% of the children in a study by Leung and Chu in China,¹² had never visited a dentist.

As the participants can be non-dental professionals, a pictorial question was included that gave them a clear vision of the problems, pictures that included were irregularly arranged teeth, black gums, excess gum exposed while smiling, black spaces between teeth, receded or exposed gums (Figs 5 and 6).

Only 90.7% were concerned about esthetics in the present study and 24% thought correcting irregularly arranged teeth can enhance esthetics which is in accordance with the study done by Faizee et al.,¹³ reported that >70% of the participants showed their interest in self-image, 39.9% of the total study population was unhappy with the arrangement of their teeth.

The level of marginal gingiva of the maxillary anterior teeth also influences the esthetic appearance of a smile, which should be located along a horizontal line extending from cuspid to cuspid. In the current study, 17.1% thought that correcting the excess gum exposed can improve esthetics. In the study done by Shetty et al., there was no awareness of the gingival recession.¹⁴

The survey of adults showed that those who had check-ups had almost half as many teeth missing as those who visited the dentist only in times of problem.¹⁵ In the present study, 31.7% visit dentist only in times of dental problem.

CONCLUSION

Awareness of oral hygiene and esthetics was moderate among youngsters. Esthetic concern was significant among most of them. A significant number of participants knew oral problems can be corrected but were hesitant to correct them concerning the expenses of the treatment. Most of them were unaware of a specialist named a periodontist and would visit a general dentist in times of need. Thus, there is a definite need to focus on spreading awareness among youngsters regarding oral hygiene maintenance and esthetic corrections in compromised conditions. We, as dentists, will have to keep reinforcing the importance of oral hygiene and esthetics awareness among the youngsters. This study helps in enhancing the knowledge and attitude of the young population on oral hygiene and esthetics.

REFERENCES

1. Kapoor D, Gill S, Singh A, et al. Oral hygiene awareness and practice amongst patients visiting the department of periodontology at a dental college and hospital in north India. Indian J Dent 2014;5(2):64–68. DOI: 10.4103/0975-962X.135262.

2. World Health Association. Previous World Health Days. Geneva: World Health Association; 2016.Available from: http://www.who.int/world-health-ay/previous/en/.

3. Jain N, Mitra D, Ashok KP, et al. Oral hygiene-awareness and practice among patients attending OPD at Vyas Dental College and Hospital, Jodhpur. J Indian Soc Periodontol 2012;16(4):524–528. DOI: 10.4103/0972-124X.106894.

4. Dilip CL. Health status, treatment requirements, knowledge, and attitude towards oral health of police recruits in Karnataka. J Indian Assoc Public Health Dent 2005;5:20–34.

5. Jiang H, Petersen PE, Peng B, et al. Self-assessed dental health, oral health practices, and general health behaviors in Chinese urban adolescents. Acta Odontol Scand 2005;63(6):343–352. DOI: 10.1080/00016350500216982.

6. Al-Shammari KF, Al-Ansari JM, Al-Khabbaz AK, et al. Self-reported oral hygiene habits and oral health problems of Kuwaiti adults. Med Princ Pract 2007;16(1):15–21. DOI: 10.1159/000096134.

7. Zhu L, Petersen PE, Wang HY, et al. Oral health knowledge, attitudes, and behavior of adults in China. Int Dent J 2005;55(4):231–241. DOI: 10.1111/j.1875-595X.2005.tb00321.x.

8. Kapse P, Yeltiwar RR, Patil P, et al. An online survey about awareness and motivation regarding periodontal health in Maharashtra. Indian Journal of Multidisciplinary Dentistry 2018;8(2):71–75.

9. Al-Beiruti N. Oral health behavior among a sample of schoolteachers, physicians, and nurses in the Syrian Arab Republic. East Mediterr Health J 1997;3:258–262.

10. Ganesh A, Chaly PE, Reddy VC, et al. Oral health awareness and oral hygiene status of 12- and 15-year-old children in Chennai. J Indian Assoc Public Health Dent 2019;17(3):206–212. DOI: 10.4103/jiaphd.jiaphd_214_18.

11. Varenne B, Petersen PE, Ouattara S. Oral health behaviour of children and adults in urban and rural areas of Burkina Faso. Africa Int Dent J 2006;56(2):61–70. DOI: 10.1111/j.1875-595X.2006.tb00075.x.

12. Leung WK, Chu CH. Dental caries and periodontal status of 12-year-old school children in rural Qinghai, China. Int Dent J 2003;53(2):73–78. DOI: 10.1111/j.1875-595X.2003.tb00662.x.

13. Faizee SH, Veerasankar S, Avanthika K, et al. Awareness survey about the effects of malocclusion among young adults. Indian J Dent Res 2018;29(6):705–710. DOI: 10.4103/ijdr.IJDR_748_17.

14. Shetty A, Bhandary R, Thomas B. Awareness on gingival recession and its association to risk factors: an epidemiological study. Research 2014;1:1268. DOI: 10.13070/rs.en.1.1268.

15. Todd JE, Lader D. Adult Dental Health 1988 the United Kingdom. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO); 1991.