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Study on Oral Hygiene: Awareness and Practices Among the School Going Children in Rajshahi Division

Nur-E-Saud, Abdul Awal, Ayrin Parvin, Shahriar Zaman, Tamanna Akbar

The aim of the study was to describe and analyse the oral hygiene condition and practices among the school going children of rural areas in Bangladesh. However, effective health education can bring encouraging result to aware them for healthy practice. A population based cross sectional descriptive study. Sample sizes total of 270 subjects. Subjects were recruited from age range (4–14 years) by purposive sampling. A total of 270 cased were interviewed and examined. Data were collected from school going children in different rural areas of Bangladesh. All children were interviewed (face-to-face) using a semistructured questionnaire. Clinical examination was performed to measure the oral hygiene status. Statistical analysis was carried out using SPSS program version 16.0. Among all participants 44.44% (120) were female and 55.55% (150) were male. Findings reveal poor oral and dental health condition of the survey population and their lack of knowledge and awareness conducive to good oral and dental health. Findings also reveal their reliance on informal sector providers for treatment of oral and dental health illnesses due to non-availability of qualified professionals. Oral hygiene practice is a neglected chore in the daily routine of the survey population as revealed through real life observation in the study area. The community people hardly used tooth brush and/or tooth paste/ powder. Instead, they used various abrasive materials like charcoal powder, branches of trees claimed to have medicinal properties, etc. for cleaning teeth which is damaging and in turn, cause different oral and dental health problems.