Background: The challenge for health care professionals is not only to adequately address the healthcare needs of population, but also to enable them to live a more productive and enjoyable life. Oral health care plays a vital role in preventing oral morbidities. It comprises of change in attitude of people toward oral health, prevention, timely and appropriate diagnosis, and professional care seeking as and when required. There is scarcity of epidemiological data on representative population in Yanam district. Thus, the present study was undertaken on adults of Yanam to find the prevalence of oral morbidities and the unmet needs for oral health services. Objective: To assess oral hygiene status and unmet needs among the population visiting outreach programs in Yanam, Puducherry. Methodology: A total of 191 older adults aged 40- 60 years & above visiting outreach programs during the study period and those who were willing to participate and gave informed consent were included in this study. Participants with psychiatric/neuropsychiatric diagnosis (i.e., autism spectrum disorder, depression) were excluded from the study. Oral hygiene status and periodontal status were assessed using Oral hygiene index (OHIS) and CPITN index by a single examiner under artificial illumination with mouth mirror, explorer and CPITN probe respectively. Results: The Statistical Analysis was done using SPSS v.25 software IBM.,Corp. Descriptive analysis of the data was presented as frequencies, by using Chi-Square test. The mean age of the patients was 52.6 years. The average mean of OHI-S was 2.6 ± 1.3 and CPI was 1.79 ± 1.08. Among the study population, poor OHI-S score was seen among 75(38.9%) and loss of attachment of score 3 was seen among 62(32.1%) who needs dental extraction and periodontal therapy. The majority of the participants showed unmet Conclusion: oral health needs indicating poor oral hygiene status.
Konatham et al. (Tue,) studied this question.