Method: This study was conducted at the Kotka Health Centre in Finland. From the initial sample of 545 15–16-year-olds 501subjects, boys (n=258) and girls (n=243), were invited to participate. Health habits including smoking and tooth brushing frequency were recorded. The results were analyzed by SPSS statistical program using cross-tabulation and nominal regression.
Result: Most of the boys brushed their teeth less than twice daily. Odds ratio (OR) for frequent tooth brushing was 6.6 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.3-32.5) for boys in upper-secondary school compared with those in vocational school and who also brushed their teeth at least twice daily (p=0.020). Compared with smoking boys, OR was 3.5 (CI 1.4-8.4, p=0.006) for non-smoking boys who brushed at least twice daily. OR was 4.0 (CI 1.9-8.2, p<0.000) for those who had a non-smoking best friend and brushed their teeth more than once daily. If parents were non-smokers the OR for adolescent to brush their teeth at least twice daily was 2.8 (CI 95% 1.1-7.1, p=0.02).
Conclusion: Frequent tooth brushing was associated with gender, type of school and regular smoking as well as with environment influence, such as parental and best friend`s smoking. Thus, social factors appeared important in modeling health behavior of adolescents.