Oral Health Behaviours in a Group of Adolescent Public Patients

Objective: This paper describes the oral health behaviours of a sample of high risk adolescent public dental patients recruited into the Minimal Intervention Dentistry pilot study implemented in a Melbourne Metropolitan dental clinic. Methods: A sample of 113 adolescents aged 13-18 years was selected from the 12-month recall list of the dental clinic at Western Region Health Centre. A questionnaire eliciting socio-demographic information and oral health behaviours was administered, and an intra-oral examination was conducted on each participants. Oral hygiene was assessed by the modified Silness-Löe Plaque Index and gingival status by the modified Cowell et al Gingival Index. Data collection took place between November 2010 and March 2011. Results: The great majority (96.3%) thought that a healthy mouth was important or very important. However, just over half (53.4%) self-assessed their oral health as good or very good, compared to other adolescents, 32.1% self-assessed their oral health as “fair” and 14.5% reported “poor”. The majority (57.1%) had more than 3 sweets snacks in between meals per day. Approximately one third (34.2%) of the sample had no gingival bleeding, about half (48.6%) showed bleeding after gentle probing, and 17.2% had bleeding immediately after probing or spontaneous bleeding. About one quarter of the sample (23.4%) had no visible plaque, whilst 15.3% of the sample had visible plaque. The sample had a mean gingival bleeding index of 0.31 (s.d. 0.34) and a mean visible plaque index of 0.43 (s.d. 0.37). The majority, 74.6% needed oral hygiene instructions. No differences were found by gender, country of birth or language spoken at home. Conclusion: Valuing a healthy mouth as important or very important in this group of disadvantaged adolescents was not sufficient to promote positive oral health behaviours across the sample. Their perception of oral health was not consistent with their oral health behaviours.