1Reader, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal
2Prof. & Head, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal
3Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal
4Associate Professor, Department of Orthodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Madhava Nagar, Manipal, Karnataka
*Corresponding Author: Ritesh Singla, Associate Professor, Department of Orthodontics, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Madhava Nagar, Manipal, Karnataka, Phone numbers: 9844807978, E-mail address: riteshsingla83@yahoo.com
Online published on 7 December, 2018.
This study evaluates various factors which can influence the dental attitude of adult patients towards their dental health and care.
It was a cross-sectional study consisting of self-administered structured questionnaire on patients’ dental attitude as well as socio demographic variables completed by 377 patients; mean age 34.3 years recruited from the dental centers of Manipal College of Dental Sciences in Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India. Frequency distribution analysis and chi-square test was used to compare between categorical variables.
The good dental attitude were significantly found in subjects those belonged to urban places (p<0.001), had higher SES (p=0.003), had better financial capacity (p<0.001), were able to pay the bills comfortably (<0.001), were satisfied with their dentists (p<0.001) and those believed in having personal responsibility in taking care of their oral health (p<0.001) than their counterparts (p<0.001). The poor dental attitudes were significantly found in subjects those agreed that cost had influenced their treatment in the past (p<0.001), those believed to get over any dental problem by itself (p<0.001) and eventually losing their teeth regardless of the efforts (p<0.001), those had cynicism towards dentists and dental care (p<0.001) and those dental treatment didn't work out well (p<0.001).
Health promotion strategies focused on changing the dental attitudes of patients based upon these determinants can achieve better compliance of the patients towards dental health advice and care.
Factors, Determinants, Dental, Attitudes, Adults
