Table 2 Oral health behavior of dental and medical students in 1st and 3rd year (%)a
Question (recommended behavior) | 1st year | 3rd year | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Dental students | Medical students | P | Dental students | Medical students | P | |
Frequency of daily tooth brushing (≥ twice) | 93.2 | 89.6 | 0.206 | 97.8 | 87.1 | 0.000 |
Duration of tooth brushing (≥ 2 min) | 94.7 | 83.1 | 0.000 | 96.7 | 84.2 | 0.000 |
Frequency of replacing toothbrush (≤ 3 months) | 66.8 | 69.7 | 0.551 | 71.3 | 59.4 | 0.015 |
Frequency of visiting the dentist (regularly) | 10.5 | 5.5 | 0.065 | 19.9 | 10.4 | 0.009 |
Method of tooth brushing | ||||||
 Vertical scrub | 38.4 | 24.4 | 0.003 | 35.4 | 29.7 | 0.238 |
 Horizontal scrub | 11.1 | 24.9 | 0.000 | 6.1 | 22.3 | 0.000 |
 Modified Bass technique | 20.5 | 6.5 | 0.000 | 30.9 | 6.4 | 0.000 |
 Fones technique | 10.5 | 3.5 | 0.006 | 9.9 | 6.4 | 0.209 |
 Irregular | 19.5 | 40.8 | 0.000 | 17.7 | 35.1 | 0.000 |
Oral hygiene methods besides tooth brushing | ||||||
 Dental floss | 14.2 | 3.5 | 0.000 | 40.9 | 6.4 | 0.000 |
 Mouthwash | 13.7 | 14.9 | 0.726 | 23.8 | 11.4 | 0.001 |
 Sugar-free chewing gum | 11.1 | 11.4 | 0.903 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 0.806 |
 Toothpick | 7.4 | 6.5 | 0.726 | 4.4 | 8.4 | 0.114 |
 None | 64.7 | 65.7 | 0.846 | 47.0 | 74.3 | 0.000 |