Oral Health Knowledge and Oral Hygiene Practices among Secondary School Students in Bayelsa State: A Comparative Analysis

Objective: In the availability of documented negative attitudes to oral health care by a populace, there have also been documented reports of an inadequacy of oral health care services despite a high demand for these services in Nigeria. This study set out to assess the oral health knowledge and practices of students in different areas in Bayelsa State having an availability and scarcity of oral healthcare services. Significant differences in the oral health knowledge and hygiene practices of these students in the perspective of availability or scarcity of oral health care services were also sought for.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in which a multistage sampling technique was utilized in selecting 1357 respondents from 6 secondary schools located within the study areas. Close-ended self-structured questionnaires seeking to determine the level of oral health knowledge (using a 4-point Likert scale) as well as oral hygiene practices of respondents was used as our instrument for data collection. Positive and negatively skewed questions were asked in order to effectively determine their level of oral health knowledge.

Results: Majority of students within the Bayelsa East Senatorial District 878 (91.0%) with a mean score of 16.35 ±1.95 and students within the Yenagoa metropolis 346 (88.3%) with a mean score of 15.87 + 1.70 had good knowledge of oral health. Concerning oral hygiene practices of the students in both study areas, the majority of students were shown to have good oral hygiene practices including the use of toothbrush and toothpaste, cleaning their mouths twice a day as well as changing their toothbrushes every 1 – 3 months. Most of the students had however never visited the dental clinic.

Conclusion: The availability or scarcity of oral health care services is not a determinant of good oral health knowledge or the practice of good oral hygiene in this study.