Dental health awareness and practice among secondary school children in Enugu, Nigeria

Abstract

A cross sectional survey of 391 secondary school student was carried out in 1992 to study their dental health knowledge and practice. Their predominant method of cleaning the teeth was the brush method (84%) followed by the traditional chewing stick (45%). The teeth were mainly cleaned in order to prevent disease (76%) and partly for aesthetic reasons (40%). Except for the chocolate (74%), there was a generally low ability of the students to identify common cariogenic diets especially soft drinks (8%). And apart from “hole in the tooth” (47%), other symptoms and signs of dental diseases were poorly recognised. Also in the absence of tooth pain (36%), regular dental check-up is not the practice in this population. Dental health education by dentists and dental auxiliaries is recommended to remedy the situation.

Keywords

• dental health
• awareness
• attitude
• education