Abstract
Objectives: To determine the oral hygiene status and practices among rural dwellers in Delta
and Edo States of Nigeria. Materials and Methods: One-hundred and fifty-four participants (45 males and 109 females) between the ages
of 5 and 88 years with mean age of 33.44±2.34 years selected among individuals attending
Children Evangelism Ministry Free Medical Outreach in five rural communities in both
Delta and Edo State of Nigeria were studied. Data were collected through clinical
examinations and the use of interviewer-administered questionnaires. Results: Of the 154 participants studied, 22.1% participants had one or more carious teeth,
11.7% participants had at least one missing tooth and 0.6% participants had fillings.
Toothache (33.1%) and gingival bleeding (27.3%) were reported oral health problems
among the participants. One third (33.8%) of the participants had poor oral hygiene
status. Oral hygiene status was significantly associated with age, gender, and educational
status, but there was no significant variation among the various communities. Majority
of the participants cleaned their teeth with toothbrush and toothpaste-133 (86.4%),
indulged in once-daily tooth cleaning-115 (74.7%), and have never visited the dentist-145
(94.2%). There existed significant association between daily tooth cleaning frequency,
age, gender, location and level of education. Conclusion: The oral hygiene and oral health practices among rural dwellers were suboptimal.
There is need to develop and implement community-oriented oral health promotion programs
targeting oral health practices to control preventable oral diseases among rural dweller.
Keywords
Calculus score - debris score - oral hygiene - practices - rural dwellers