Knowledge, Attitude and Practices of Pregnant Females Regarding Oral Health

Abstract

Aim: To determine knowledge, attitude and practices of oral hygiene among pregnant females. Methods: A total of 121pregnant women regardless of age, financial status, social class or ethnic group were interviewed in the outpatient department of Lady Wallington Hospital, Lahore to evaluate the knowledge,attitude and practices of pregnant women regarding oral health. After taking consent, a self-structured questionnaire was filled by the principal investigatorwith each question having two responses as yes or No. Data was analyzed using SPSS 21. A chi square test of association was also applied and P-value < 0.05 was taken as significant. Cross tabulation between sociodemographic variables such as gender, residency, education, income and Knowledge about oral healthwas also measured. Results:Mean age of the pregnant women was 25.90, SD± 3.218, among them 19.8% were illiterate, and 36.4% had less than 15000 monthly income. Most common oral hygiene practice was cleaning through tooth brush and tooth paste 62%, and mostly do before breakfast almost 95%. Only 20.7 % think it is important to visit dentist during pregnancy, 22.3% think treatment is safe during pregnancy, and 56.2% believed scaling can cause losing teeth. Conclusion:Primary prevention of oral diseases among pregnant ladies need to enhance to reduce burden of diseases.