title: Knowledge, Attitude and Behaviour for Choosing Oral Hygiene Aids among Students of Management Institutes, Ghaziabad, India.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  There is a lot of information available about various oral hygiene aids used for the maintenance of oral hygiene and the prevention of oral diseases but the reason why people choose a particular product is under-reported. This study sought to assess the knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of choosing oral hygiene aids among students of management institutes in Ghaziabad, India.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional survey was conducted in five management institutes selected by simple random sampling and data were collected from 1224 students by self-administered structured validated questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The study showed that toothbrush (96.8%) and toothpaste (95.2%) were the main products used for the maintenance of oral hygiene. The most commonly used brand dentifrices were Colgate and Close-Up (47%, 23.3%) and in toothbrush, Oral B and Colgate (48.4%, 30.9%), respectively. A particular brand of toothpaste was preferred by 66.4% of the subjects because of childhood and parental use, which was the most influential factor (56.9%). Bristle design was the main criterion for choosing a toothbrush (44.9%), followed by bristle consistency (33.1%). The most commonly used toothbrushes were of soft bristle consistency (51.2%) and 10.9% of the subjects did not know the type of bristle consistency present in their toothbrush.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Selection of oral hygiene products was based more on parental influence and there seems to be a lack of knowledge and awareness about how to choose a dentifrice and toothbrush.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, ITS - Centre for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. sunder_kote2000@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kote
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, ITS - Centre for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dadu
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, ITS - Centre for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Sowmya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: A R
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, ITS - Centre for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: Aruna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ds
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, ITS - Centre for Dental Studies and Research, Muradnagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Arora