Oral Health Behavior and Awareness of Tertiary Industry Workers: A 2016 Questionnaire Survey in Nishi-ku, Sakai-shi, Osaka

Abstract

 Purpose: Recently, the number of people receiving a regular dental examination has increased, but the consultation rate among workers remains low. Therefore, we explored the awareness of and health actions for regular dental examinations of tertiary industry workers and discussed awareness-raising activities in future. Furthermore, we clarified the effects of tooth-brushing instruction (TBI) carried out by a dentist at the subject’s workplace.

 Methods: We investigated type of industry, age, sex, whether receiving a regular dental examination or not, reasons in case of not receiving, presence of caries, knowledge of brushing, number of times and duration of brushing, requests about the system of consultation for dental examination, and awareness of the 8020 campaign among workers in tertiary industries using a questionnaire. Logistic regression analyses were performed to evaluate the correlation between regular dental examination (examination group) and the others. In addition, we divided the 21 subjects who did not receive dental examination (non-examination group) into the TBI group (11 subjects) who received oral health instruction and the control group (10 subjects) without instruction. A plaque control record (PCR) was made for all subjects four times every 6 months at each workplace. We compared the PCR value in both groups and discussed the effect of TBI.

 Results: Of the 647 questionnaires which we distributed, 378 were returned (dental examination group: 107, non-examination group: 269, no answer: 2). The main reason for not receiving a dental examination was “no time”. The desired systems for dental examination were “information of recall” in the examination group and “visit dental examination” in the non-examination group. Age, woman, no caries, brushing knowledge, and use of interdental brush or floss were significantly associated with regular dental examination. The PCR value after the second time in the TBI group significantly decreased compared with the first time, and the value after the third time in the control group significantly decreased compared with the first time.

 Conclusion: Receiving regular dental examinations might improve awareness of oral care and acquisition of knowledge about brushing. In addition, it was found that TBI and examinations conducted at the workplace led to a change in behavior toward oral cleaning. These results suggested that an active approach by dentists is important for workers and men under 40 years old.