An Assessment of Oral Self-Care among Romanian Dental Students using the Hiroshima University - Dental Behavioural Inventory

Objective: To determine the differences in oral self-care levels between 322 Romanian dental students. Materials and Methods: The design of the study was a cross-sectional survey of dental students in Romania. The examination was based upon responses to a questionnaire entitled 'Hiroshima University - Dental Behavioural Inventory' (HU-DBI) and three additional questions. Results: Statistically significant differences of the mean HU-DBI scores were observed between year 1 and 2 (level of basic science course) and year 5 and 6 (level of clinical course) and between genders (p 0.001). Statistically significant differences were notable in 10 items out of 20 between three levels of dental education (basic, preclinical and clinical levels). The most striking results were that year 5 and 6 students were less likely to use a toothbrush with hard bristles (p 0.001), and less likely to worry about the colour of their teeth (p 0.01). While 20% of year 1 and 2 students reported daily flossing, almost 46% was reported in year 5 and 6 students (p 0.001). A significant difference was also observed on flossing behaviour between genders (p 0.001). Of 205 year 1-4 students, 176 (85.9%) were correctly predicted by the models, and 177 of 193 female students (91.7%) were correctly predicted. Conclusions: There were considerable differences in dental health attitudes/behaviour between the three levels of dental education and between genders. Keywords: dental education, dental students, gender, oral health behaviour, Romania