Oral health attitudes/behavior and gingival self-care level of Korean dental hygiene students.

The purpose of this study was to examine oral health attitudes/behavior and gingival self-care levels of Korean dental hygiene students (n = 271). A questionnaire known as HU-DBI (Korean version) was administered to each class. Higher scores of the HU-DBI indicate better oral health attitudes/behavior. The student's gingival self-care level was scored as excellent (+2), good (+1), questionable (0), poor (-1), or very poor (-2) according to the criteria of the Oral Rating Index (ORI) for youth. The mean score of the HU-DBI was 6.40, and that of the ORI was +0.12. Most samples scored 0 or +1. The mean HU-DBI scores of year-2 and year-3 students (7.06, and 7.61 respectively) were significantly greater than that of year-1 students (5.23) (P<0.001). Twenty-three percent of the students reported a belief that they may eventually require false teeth. Half stated that they put off going to the dentist until they had toothache. Year-1 students were more likely to have this attitude compared to year-3 students. HU-DBI scores were significantly associated with ORI scores (r = 0.315; P<0.001). The differences in the HU-DBI and ORI scores across the level of education were highly significant.