Abstract
The relationship between life-style and oral health status was investigated by studying 2,304 male employees (over 40 and under 60 in age), mostly blue-collar workers, at a certain manufacturing enterprise. The subjects were given dental-hygiene examinations and asked to complete questionnaires. A clear relation was observed between life-style (hygienic habits score) and dental hygiene habits. This suggests that the quality of general hygiene habits influences dental hygiene habits. The number of untreated teeth and lost teeth that had undergone treatment tended to decrease as hygiene habits scores increased. A significant relation was observed between the quality of hygiene habits and incidents of treatment given to areas requiring it. In the group aged from 40 to 44, increased hygiene habits scores were significantly related to decreases in lost teeth. But no clear relation was observed in subjects older than 45. A significant relation was observed between increases in hygienic habits scores and mean numbers of sextants affected at all age levels above 40 and below 60. A similar relation was observed between dental-hygiene habits and mean number of sextants affected. At all age levels, increases in hygienic-habits scores tended to be accompanied by an increase in number of daily tooth-brushings. In addition, more time tended to be spent on each tooth-brushing. These lesults lead to the assumption that, in addition to dental hygiene education, the cultivation of good hygienic habits is important to dental health control at the workplace.
