Assessment of dental caries status and methods to improve knowledge, attitude, practice of dental care in Military Medical University

Assessing the dental caries status and knowledge, attitude, practice of dental care of the 1st and the 5th year military medical students; proposing methods to improve knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care of military medical students. Subjects and methods: Cross-sectional study was carried out on 380 students of Military Medical University (185 of the 1st year students, 195 of the 5th year students) from October 2018 to May 2019. Results and conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries in Military Medical University students was quite low: 28.6% in the 1st year students and 23.1% in the 5th year students. The general DMF index was 1.005. Distribution of living area was mainly in the countryside (51.32%). The general knowledge of good dental care was 4.9% (1st year student); 74.4% (5th year student). The attitude of good dental care was 68.1% (1st year student); 89.8% (5th year student). The practice of dental care was still bad: 75.1% (1st year student); 72.3% (5th year student).

Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no7-2019 ASSESSMENT OF DENTAL CARIES STATUS AND METHODS TO IMPROVE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE, PRACTICE OF DENTAL CARE IN MILITARY MEDICAL UNIVERSITY Dinh Viet Thang1; Nguyen Khang1; Nguyen Phuong Lien1 SUMMARY Objectives: Assessing the dental caries status and knowledge, attitude, practice of dental st th care of the and the year military medical students; proposing methods to improve knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care of military medical students Subjects and methods: Cross-sectional study was carried out on 380 students of Military Medical University st th (185 of the year students, 195 of the year students) from October 2018 to May 2019 Results and conclusion: The prevalence of dental caries in Military Medical University students st th was quite low: 28.6% in the year students and 23.1% in the year students The general DMF index was 1.005 Distribution of living area was mainly in the countryside (51.32%) The st th general knowledge of good dental care was 4.9% (1 year student); 74.4% (5 year student) st th The attitude of good dental care was 68.1% (1 year student); 89.8% (5 year student) The st th practice of dental care was still bad: 75.1% (1 year student); 72.3% (5 year student) * Keywords: Dental caries; DMF index; Dental care INTRODUCTION Dental caries is the most common disease in oral diseases In recent years, although the incidence of dental caries has been improved significantly in developed and developing countries, including Vietnam thanks to scientific advances in prevention and implementation of national dental school programs However, dental caries still accounts for a high proportion, especially in students Military Medical University (MMU) is the leading medical human resources training institution for the military For odonto-stomatology department, students of MMU are only equipped with 10 theoretical lessons and 02 weeks of clinical practice So far, there has not been any studies to understand the dental caries status as well as knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care, to propose methods to improve dental care in these subjects Therefore, we conducted this research with aims: - Assessing the status of dental caries of the 1st year and the 5th year students at MMU - Assessing the status of knowledge, attitude, practice of dental care of the 1st year and the 5th year students at MMU - Proposing methods to prevent dental caries for MMU students 103 Military Hospital Corresponding author: Dinh Viet Thang (bsdinhthang277@gmail.com) Date received: 10/06/2019 Date accepted: 23/08/2019 95 Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no7-2019 SUBJECTS AND METHODS teeth; effects of dental floss; period of regular dental check-up Subjects 380 students of MMU (185 of the 1st year students and 195 of the 5th year students) The study period was from October 2018 to May 2019 at Department of Odonto-stomatology and the lecture hall of MMU Methods - Cross-sectional study - Steps to conduct this research: + Examining and collecting informations: Name, age and gender + Clinical examination combined with questionnaires on knowledge, attitude, practice of dental care in students * Data processing: By software SPSS version 22.0 * Group of variables on the knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care of two groups: - Knowledge: About causes of dental caries; time to brush teeth, how to brush - Attitude: About the dangers of dental caries; examination when there is dental disease; regular brushing; diet which lots glucose; periodically removing tartar - Practice: About brushing teeth (ways to brush teeth, brushing frequency, time, time of brushing, how to brush teeth, time of replacing new toothbrush); using dental floss; using toothpicks; diet which lots of glucose; regular dental check-up; management when there are dental problems To assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care of two groups, we set the standard that divided into levels: - If the answer is correct ≥ 80% of the points in each section: Good - If the answer is 60 - 80% of the points in each section: Average - If the answer is < 60% of the points in each section: Bad RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Table 1: Some common characteristics of the 1st and 5th year students Gender Ethenic Area living 96 st Total Characteristics The year students th The year students Number % Number % Number % Male 321 84.47 169 52.65 152 47.35 Female 59 15.53 16 27.12 43 72.88 Kinh 368 96.84 176 47.83 192 52.17 Minority 12 3.16 75.00 25.00 Urban 59 15.53 26 44.07 33 55.93 Surbuban 126 33.16 29 23.02 97 76.98 Countryside 195 51.32 130 66.67 65 33.33 Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no7-2019 Parents’ job Cadres, civil servant 74 19.47 53 71.62 21 28,38 Worker 39 10.26 10 25,64 29 74.36 Medical 50 13,16 10 20.00 40 80.00 Business 100 26.32 57 57.00 43 43.00 Farmer 100 26.32 48 48.00 52 52.00 Housewife 15 3.95 46.67 53.33 Others 0.53 0.00 0.53 Our research subject was military students, due to the specificity of them, male accounted for the majority (84.47% male and 15.53% female) Most of the students are Kinh people (96.84%), this result was similar to the study by Le Nguyen Ba Thu (2012) [3] (99.5%), the rate of students whose parents doing business and farming occupied a higher proportion than other groups (26.32%) Living areas are mainly in the countryside (51.32%) This situation may be affect the conditions and habits of dental care Table 2: Distribution of prevalence of tooth caries by gender Dental caries Students General st year th year No dental caries Gender p Number % Number % Total 98 25.8 282 74.2 Male 85 22.4 236 62.1 Female 13 3.4 46 12.1 Total 53 28.6 132 71.4 Male 49 26.5 120 64.9 Female 2.2 12 6.5 Total 45 23.1 150 76.9 Male 36 18.5 116 59.5 Female 4.6 1.5 < 0.05 < 0.05 < 0.05 The rate of dental caries was 28.6% in the 1st year and 23.1% in the 5th year This result was lower than other studies Trinh Dinh Hai [1] (2005) studied 3,181 Vietnamese adults, the rate of dental caries was 87.5% Truong Manh Dung [2] (2005) studied in the ages of 18 - 45, the rate of dental caries was 68.6% This result was due to the fact that our study subjects are medical students who have good knowledge of dental care than others 97 Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no7-2019 Table 3: Distribution of DMF index Decay Missing Filling DMF M+F (M + F)/DMF D/DMF p st 0.562 0.07 0.529 1.166 0.599 51.3% 48.6% < 0.05 th year 0.333 0.148 0.369 0.845 0.517 61.18% 38.81% General 0.447 0.109 0.449 1.005 0.558 56.24% 43.7% year Our result was lower than other studies According to Truong Manh Dung [1] (2005), the DMF index was 2.84; F Maatouk's study [4] on medical students with an average age of 22.7 showed that the DMF index was 2.32 This result showed that the dental care, treatment and preservation of tooth decay of MMU students were quite good Table 4: Comparison of the level of knowledge about dental care of the 1st year and the 5th year students Students st Level th The year p The year Number % Number % Good 4.9 145 74.4 Average 73 39.5 44 22.6 Bad 103 55.7 3.1 185 100 195 100 Total < 0.05 The proportion of students in the 5th year was higher than the 1st year at a good level (74.4% compared to 4.9%), the rate of the 1st year students was higher than 5th year students at the bad level (55.7% compared to 3.1%) This difference was statistically significant with p < 0.05 This showed the effectiveness of the teaching knowledge of dental care for students when they studied odonto-stomatology in the 5th year This result was similar to the study by R Neeraja [5] on 250 dental students in Bangalore, India: The 3rd year students with good knowledge of dental care were better than the first and the second year students, differences were statistically significant with p < 0.001 Table 5: Comparison of the level of attitude about dental care of the 1st and the 5th year students Students st Level th The year The year Number % Number % Good 126 68.1 175 89.8 Average 55 29.7 17 8.7 Bad 2.2 1.5 185 100 195 100 Total 98 p < 0.05 Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no7-2019 The proportion of students with good and average attitude of dental care in the year was higher than in the 1st year (98.5% and 97.8%) This result was similar to the study by Le Nguyen Ba Thu [3] (2012) Thus, it can be seen clearly effectiveness before and after studying odonto-stomatology of two groups th Table 6: Comparison of the level of practice of dental care of the 1st year and the 5th year students Students st Level th The year p The year Number % Number % Good 3.8 4.6 Average 39 21.1 45 23.1 Bad 139 75.1 141 72.3 185 100 195 100 > 0.05 Total The results showed that > 70% of students who practices dental care at a bad level, but this difference was not statistically significant with p > 0.05 This result was similar to study by Le Nguyen Ba Thu [3] (2012) CONCLUSION * Dental caries status of subjects: - The proportion of dental caries was quite low: 28.6% in the 1st year; 23.1% in the 5th year, mainly in countryside and the students’ parents are farmer, business - The DMF index was generally low (1.002) The DMF index of students in the 1st year was higher than in the 5th year (1.166 and 0.845) - The proportion of dental caries had not been treated in the 1st year students higher than the 5th year students (48.6% and 38.81%) * Status of knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care of subjects: - Knowledge: General knowledge about dental caries of both research groups at good level was 4.9% in the 1st year students; 74.4% in the 5th year students - Attitude: The proportion of students with good dental care attitude was 68.1% in the 1st year and 89.8% in the 5th year - Practice: Both groups of students had a high rate of badly practical skills (75.1% in the first year; 72.3% in the 5th year) * Some methods to improve knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care in MMU students: Through the above research results, we offer some methods to improve knowledge, attitude, practice of dental care in MMU students: - The MMU should organize examination, care, dental consultation, tartar scaling for students every months 99 Journal of military pharmaco-medicine no7-2019 - The MMU should add to the learning program content and practice of dental care - The MMU should invest in building skill labs for students to practice dental care skills before going to practice in hospitals REFERENCES Trịnh Đình Hải Sâu người trưởng thành Tạp chí Y học Việt Nam 2005, (306), tr.7-11 Trương Mạnh Dũng Khảo sát thực trạng bệnh sâu hành vi chăm sóc bệnh miệng người dân xã Xuân Quang, 100 Chiêm Hóa, Tuyên Quang năm 2011 Tạp chí Y học Thực hành 2011 Lê Nguyễn Bá Thụ Thực trạng bệnh sâu kiến thức, thái độ, thực hành vệ sinh miệng học sinh trung học sở thành phố Buôn Ma Thuột, tỉnh Đắk Lắk năm 2012 Tạp chí Y học Việt Nam 2012, (407), tr.89-93 F Maatouk, W Ghedira et al Effect of years of dental studies on the oral health of Tunisian dental students Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal 2006, 12 (5), pp.625-631 R Neeraja et al Oral health attitudes and behavior among a group of dental students in Bangalore, India European Journal of General Dentistry 2011, 5, pp.163-167  ... improve knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care in MMU students: Through the above research results, we offer some methods to improve knowledge, attitude, practice of dental care in MMU... Examining and collecting informations: Name, age and gender + Clinical examination combined with questionnaires on knowledge, attitude, practice of dental care in students * Data processing:... are dental problems To assess the level of knowledge, attitude and practice of dental care of two groups, we set the standard that divided into levels: - If the answer is correct ≥ 80% of the