Index of oral health literacy as the instrument for development of personalized prevention programs of stomatologic diseases

Comparative analysis of some parameters of social and dental statuses, behavioral habits of patients presented to a dentist for different reasons

Relevance. The health of the population is an essential criterion of the well-being of society. The high prevalence of dental diseases, which reduce the quality of life, dictates a broader implementation of preventive measures. Correcting the regularity of oral hygiene and consumption of fast digesting carbohydrates can achieve significant results. Purpose – to study some parameters of socio-hygienic, dental statuses and habits of patients who presented to the Health Center.Materials and methods. To achieve the purpose, we interviewed and examined 550 people: 196 men and 354 women aged 18-85 who presented to the Health Center of Krasnoyarsk Interdistrict Hospital No. 3. The study analysed the structure of patients' visits to dentists and determined dental caries prevalence and intensity. The following definition was chosen to assess the behavioral habits of patients: the frequency of oral care during the day, the frequency of consuming fast digesting carbohydrates, the rate of toothbrush replacement. Statistical data was processed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 18.0 software package.Results. 9.45% of patients exhibited low motivation for dental check-ups, most pronounced at a young age – 30,02 ± 2,00 years. The best motivation to visit a dentist for a dental check-up was among young people with higher or incomplete higher educa-tion – 57,7%. Visits to dentists for unspecified reasons were most pronounced in patients with primary or secondary education – 63,8%. The patients who presented for a dental check-up and prophylaxis exhibited the lowest caries intensity rate – 9,27 ± 1,01, and there were statistically significant differences in the DMF index depending on the education of the respondents (p = 0,016), including the components of the "F" and "M" (p < 0,001). Patients, who come for regular dental check-ups, have better oral hygiene, but very few of them limit the consumption of fast digesting carbohydrates.Conclusions. The patient motivation for dental check-ups is extremely low and depends on age and education. Patients, who visit dentists for a check-up, have the lowest intensity of dental caries and statistically significant differences in the components of the DMF index depending on education.The establishing of health centres in the domestic health care system to promote a healthy lifestyle in Russian citizens, including smoking and alcohol consumption reduction, allows using their organisational, methodological and material and technical capabilities for further studying the issues of dental disease prevention, creating the most balanced questionnaires and other tools for assessing and monitoring dental health.