Oral health attitudes and behaviours among Portuguese dental students

Introduction: Today’s dental students are going to be the future dentists responsible for oral health education and promotion. Oral health professionals’ attitudes and behaviours towards their own health relect their understanding about the importance of oral problems prevention and may contribute to the improvement of their patients’ oral health. Objectives: Evaluate oral health attitudes and behaviours (OHAB) among Portuguese students. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross sectional study in a sample constituted by 203 students of Portuguese Catholic University, Viseu. Data collection was performed through a self-administered questionnaire about OHAB, which included the Hiroshima University Dental Behavioural Inventory. Results: We found that 69.5% of the students adopted less adequate OHAB. Only the year of the course inluenced OHAB. Therefore, the higher the year, the better were OHAB. By calculating the variability, we found that the year was responsible for 8.87% of the variation in OHAB and the statistical differences were between the students of 1st and 4th year and 1st and 5th year. Conclusion: These results are consistent with some studies that point to the likely inluence of the exposure and acquisition of knowledge about OHAB transmitted along the academic education and clinical experience. As students progress through the course, they are more aware and more attentive to their oral health. Consequently, they adopt better attitudes and preventive behaviours. It is very important to change the way we do oral health education. The planning of teaching strategies for oral health behavioural changes should give importance to teaching selfcare techniques, towards to alert to the perception of risk factors what are in the origin of oral diseases.