Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry

ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Year
: 2014  |  Volume : 12  |  Issue : 4  |  Page : 272--275

Dentition status and treatment needs of engineering students in Lucknow city


Mayank Agrawal1, Sonam Agrawal2, P Anuradha3, Smita D Dutta2, Arpit Sharma4, Mukesh Gupta5, Sarita Chopra2,  
1 Departments of Public Health Dentistry, Rajasthan Dental College and Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
2 Department of Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics, Rajasthan Dental College and Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
3 Departments of Public Health Dentistry, Babu Banarasi Das College of Dental Sciences, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
4 Departments of Public Health Dentistry, Modern Dental College and Research Center, Madhya Pradesh, India
5 Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics, Index Dental College, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India

Correspondence Address:
Mayank Agrawal
Department of Public Health Dentistry, Rajasthan Dental College and Hospital, Jaipur, Rajasthan
India

Abstract

Introduction: Professional college students should be more aware of their health. The simple concept of oral hygiene should be understood and put into practice by them. Objectives: To assess the dentition status and treatment needs of engineering students in Lucknow city. Materials and Methods: A total of 500 subjects were included in the study. The subjects were selected from four Engineering colleges randomly selected from all parts of the city. Data were collected by using oral health assessment form by WHO (1997). The proforma included questions on oral hygiene practices, dentition status and treatment needs. Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 15.0. Results: Among the total subjects, 56% of the subjects were males and 44% were females in the study. Decayed teeth were found among 52.8% of the subjects in the present study. However, frequency of filled teeth (4%), missing (4.8%), bridge abutment (0.4%) and trauma (5.2%) was small. One surface filling was required among 26.4% of the subjects, 2 or more surface filling was required among 8%, crown for 5.2%, pulp care was 6.4% and extraction was required in 4.4% of the subjects. The decayed, missing, and filled teeth score among male subjects was 1.02 ± 1.20 and females 0.82 ± 0.94. Conclusion: The dental caries among the engineering students was found to be high and were more in males when compared to the females.



How to cite this article:
Agrawal M, Agrawal S, Anuradha P, Dutta SD, Sharma A, Gupta M, Chopra S. Dentition status and treatment needs of engineering students in Lucknow city .J Indian Assoc Public Health Dent 2014;12:272-275


How to cite this URL:
Agrawal M, Agrawal S, Anuradha P, Dutta SD, Sharma A, Gupta M, Chopra S. Dentition status and treatment needs of engineering students in Lucknow city . J Indian Assoc Public Health Dent [serial online] 2014 [cited 2024 Mar 28 ];12:272-275
Available from: https://journals.lww.com/aphd/pages/default.aspx/text.asp?2014/12/4/272/147645


Full Text

 Introduction



Engineering is the application of scientific, economic, social, and practical knowledge, in order to design, build, and maintain structures, machines, devices, systems, materials and processes. The discipline of engineering is extremely broad and encompasses a range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis on particular areas of technology and types of application. India, an emerging economy of the world has shown tremendous growth and improvement in medical and dental care services, but, unfortunately, it is restricted to urban areas. [1]

Tooth loss is one of the main public health problems affecting the adult population worldwide. It is a terminal event in the life of a tooth and is a frequent episode in individuals with uncared and neglected oral cavity. It is the ultimate barometer of failure or success in dentistry. There are various causes of tooth loss, the main ones being dental caries and periodontal disease. Other factors include access to dental services, health system organization, and oral health care. [2]

Dental caries is painful, expensive to treat, and can harm nutrition and overall health. The effects of dental caries on growth and physical, social/emotional, and cognitive development have implications on success and productivity throughout the life. [3] The major etiological factors of caries are improper oral hygiene, diet based on carbohydrate-rich and highly processed food products, neglect of prophylaxis and dental check-up. In adolescents, additional cariogenic factors include eating snacks between meals, excessive consumption of sweets of sticky consistency and sparkling drinks, [4] exposure to fluorides, socioeconomic status ethnicity, health, age, access to oral health services, and other lifestyle factors. [5]

With a higher educational background, the concept of prevention and well-being could be more easily understood, irrespective of their course of study (medical or nonmedical). The simple concept of oral hygiene should be equally understood and put into practice by them. Studies on the knowledge, attitude, and behavior of engineering students toward oral health have been sparse. Professional college students should be more aware of their health. Therefore, the present study was conducted to know the oral hygiene habits and to assess the dentition status and treatment needs of engineering students in Lucknow city.

 Materials and Methods



The present survey was conducted among the engineering students of Lucknow city, Uttar Pradesh. A list of colleges was obtained from Babu Banarasi Das University, and four engineering colleges were randomly selected from all parts of the city. From each institute, 125 subjects were selected by simple random sampling making a sample size of 500. The survey was scheduled in the afternoon in the college premises in the month of January of 2013. Inclusion criteria was the subjects aged 19 and above and those who were present in the college on the day of the survey, and the subjects taking antibiotics, suffering from any systemic disease and subject with any congenital defect were excluded.

Ethical clearance was obtained from the University Ethical Board. Official permission was obtained from the principal of the college before carrying out the examination. Verbal consent was obtained from the subjects before carrying out the examination. To maintain consistency of the examination, the examiner was calibrated at Babu Banarasi Das College of Dental Sciences, Lucknow. Pilot study was not conducted as this was a continuation of the previous study. [6] Data were collected by using oral health assessment form by WHO (1997). The proforma included questions on oral hygiene practices, dentition status and treatment needs. Intern was a Recording clerk who practiced recording the findings from few preliminary examinations.

Type III examination was carried out in the engineering college premises using sterile plane mouth mirror and WHO probe. Examination was done on a plastic/wooden chair with high back rest and the instruments were arranged on a wooden table available in the college. Oral health education was given to the subjects after the examination was carried out. The report was prepared and given to the college principal. The subjects with treatment needs were provided treatment at Babu Banarasi Das College of Dental Sciences, Lucknow for free or at reduced cost.

Statistical analysis was performed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 15.0. (IBM Corporation, Chicago, U.S.A). Chi-square was used to compare the differences in proportions of observed data. The t-test was used to compares the actual difference between two means in the data. Comparison of two independent random samples was made by Mann-Whitney U-test.

 Results



The study included 500 subjects. Overall 56% were male, and 44% were females. More than half (58%) of the study subjects were <20 years, of these, 49.7% were male and 50.3% were females. More than one-third (42%) of the subjects were ≥20 years, of these 64.8% were male, and 35.2% were females [Figure 1].{Figure 1}

Oral hygienic practices

There were 97.9% males and 99.1% female who used tooth brush, (χ2 = 7.27, P = 0.03) (P < 0.05), 90.7% males and 95.5% female used tooth paste (χ2 = 8.62, P = 0.01) (P < 0.05) for cleaning teeth, which was statistically significant. Few used twig, finger and few used tooth powder.

More than half of male (68.6%) and female (62.7%) used combination of horizontal, circular and vertical method of brushing. The horizontal method of brushing was used by 27.3% males and 19.3% females. However, the association between gender and method of brushing for cleaning teeth was statistically insignificant (χ2 = 3.07, P = 0.38) (P > 0.05)

Assessment of teeth

Decayed teeth were found among 52.8% of the subjects. However, frequency of filled (4%), missing (4.8%), bridge abutment (0.4%) and trauma (5.2%) was small [Table 1].{Table 1}

Treatment required

One surface treatment was required among 26.4% of the subjects. However, 2 or more surface was required among 8% of the subjects. The required treatment of crown (5.2%), pulp care (6.4%) and extraction (4.4) were small [Table 2].{Table 2}

Decayed, missing, and filled teeth by gender

The decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) score was higher among male subjects (1.02 ± 1.20) as compared to females (0.82 ± 0.94), however, the difference was not statistically insignificant (P > 0.05) [Figure 2].{Figure 2}

 Discussion



The present survey was conducted among 500 engineering students of Lucknow city, Uttar-Pradesh selected randomly from the engineering colleges. Overall 56% of the subjects were males and 44% were females.

In the study population, 98.4% of the subjects were using tooth brush for cleaning their teeth, 4% were using twig and 1.2% of the subjects were using finger to clean their teeth which is similar to the study done by Anuradha and Sinha [6] The twig use could be attributed to the rural background of the students. Majority (92.8%) of the subjects were using toothpaste for cleaning their teeth, 6.8% were using tooth powder, which is similar to the study done by Anuradha and Sinha [6] Overall 66% of the subjects were cleaning their teeth by the combination method and 22.8% were cleaning teeth horizontally as this is the most commonly used method. Nearly 10% of the subjects were cleaning teeth by circular and vertical method.

Decayed teeth were found among 52.8% of the subjects in the present study. However, frequency of filled (4%), missing (4.8%), bridge abutment (0.4%) and trauma (5.2%) was small similar to the study done by Anuradha and Sinha, [6] and Poornima et al. [7] where 78.5% had decayed teeth. Contrasting results were found in the study by Saravanan et al. [2] on rural school children in Chidambaram taluk where 23.6% boys and 29% girls had decayed teeth. The reason for which could be use of less refined foods in this areas. The frequency of decayed teeth was higher among males (57.1%) than females (46.3%) similar to the study done by Anuradha and Sinha [6] where 56.5% males and 53.4% females had decayed teeth but the difference is not significant.

The present study found 2.9% filled teeth in males, 5.5% filled teeth in females, 5% missing teeth in males and 4.5% missing teeth in females, trauma in 5.7% of teeth in males and 4.5% of teeth in females which is less than the study done by Anuradha and Sinha [6] where 15.4% of males and 14.8% of females had filled teeth, 12.2% males and 13.6% had filled teeth.

One surface filling was required among 26.4% of the subjects similar to the study done by Anuradha and Sinha [6] where 25.7% of the subjects needed one surface filling against in the study by Poornima et al. [7] on sports persons 59.9% of whom needed one surface filling.

However, 2 or more surface filling was required among 8% of the subjects in the present study. The results of the study done by Anuradha and Sinha [6] were contrasting where 20.1% needed 2 or more surface filling Poornima et al. [7] on sports person where 38.6% needed 2 or more surface filling.

In the present study the required treatment of crown was 5.2%, pulp care was 6.4% and extraction was in 4.4% which was less compared in the study done by Anuradha and Sinha [6] where 16.1% needed crown, 17.4% needed pulp care and 2.9% needed extraction, Poornima et al. [7] on sports persons where pulp care was needed by 16.2% and extraction was done by 10.6% of subjects. In the present study, one surface treatment was required among 31.4% male and 20% of female subjects. 2 or more surface filling was required among 7.9% of male subjects and 8.2% of female subjects.

The DMFT score among male subjects was (1.02 ± 1.20) and females (0.82 ± 0.94) [Table 3] similar to the findings of Ahpa [8] on students in Bangkok where DMFT was 4.2, Pakpour et al. [9] on the Iranian adolescent where Mean DMFT for males was 2.81 ± 2.02 and females was 2.43 ± 1.74 which can be attributed to the high rate of snacking and frequent intake of sugars. These findings were less compared to the study done by Dabrowska et al. [10] on dental students where decay-missing-filled score for females was 11.72 and that of males was 12.40.{Table 3}

Limitations of the study

There are >20,000 engineering students in Lucknow, and the present sample was very less to generalize the results. Important findings of the study could have been missed out as many students had not returned from their winter vacations when the study was conducted in January.

 Conclusions



Majority of the subjects used tooth brush, toothpaste and brushed once a day. Decayed teeth were found among 52.8% of the subjects in the present study. However, frequency of filled teeth missing, bridge abutment and trauma was small. One surface filling was required among 26.4% of the subjects. The DMFT score among male subjects was 1.02 ± 1.20 and females 0.82 ± 0.94.

Recommendations

The dental caries status amongst the engineering students was found to be high. Since they are the building blocks of the society, they must have full knowledge about the need and necessity of maintaining good oral health. Oral health education must be given and reinforced at regular intervals and hence that maintenance of good oral health and hygiene becomes a routine practiceOral check-up at regular intervals to avoid oral heath related problems and early treatment of lesions as needed should be advisedFurther research is needed among the engineering and other professional college students to get the clear picture of the prevalence of oral diseases and plan a public health program accordingly.

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