Objectives: To determine the prevalence and associated factors of gingival recession among adults aged 21 years and above.
Methods: 384 residents of Ayete, a rural community southwestern Nigeria aged 21 years and above participated in this cross sectional study.
A 20 item semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire on knowledge, attitude and practice about gingival recession was administered to the participants.
Oral examination to establish the presence of gingival recession, root caries and tooth mobility was carried out by four examiners.
Frequencies and percentages of relevant variables were reported. Chi-square test was used to test associations between categorical variables at 5% level of significance.
RESULTS: The majority 114 (29.7%) of the study participants were in the age group 21 – 30 years
197 (51.3%) were females while 187 (48.7%) were males
248 (64.6%) were farmers, traders and artisans while 136 (35.4%) were civil servants
267 (69.5%) had primary school education or none while 117 (30.5%) had secondary school education or more.
The majority 205 (53.4%) cleaned their teeth horizontally, 164 (42.7%) cleaned theirs randomly and 15 (3.9%)cleaned vertically.
The majority 244 (63.6%) cleaned their teeth once daily while 140 (36.5%) cleaned their teeth twice daily.
The majority 330 (85.9%) reported that they had not receive information on oral hygiene practice in the past.
104 (27.1%) stated that they opened corks with their teeth.
131 (34.1%) reported that they brushed their teeth vigorously.
CONCLUSION: The study showed that the prevalence of gingival recession was high among the study participants and a sizeable number had poor knowledge of the causative factors of gingival recession.
There was an association between age group, sex and cleaning device with Gingival Recession.
Keywords – Gingival Recession, Adults, Elderly, Oral Health