title: Oral Health Status, Treatment Needs and Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Health Care Workers of Ambala, India - A Cross-sectional Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Health care workers (HCWs) from an important component of the health care system of any nation. Adequate knowledge regarding oral health is also mandatory as it is directly related to general health.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The present study was undertaken to assess oral health status and treatment needs of the health workers in Ambala district and to assess the knowledge, attitude and practices of HCWs.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted among 148 HCWs of Ambala District. World Health Organization (WHO) Oral Health Performa-1997 was used to collect the data. For the diagnosis of dental caries, WHO type III examination was done using mouth mirrors and sharp probes while periodontal assessments were done by community periodontal index-probes. The data were analyzed using SPSS package, Chicago, IL, version 13.0.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Eating sweets and poor oral hygiene lead to dental caries were cited as the main reasons for dental caries by 62.2% (92/148) of subjects. Majority of the subjects (43.2%, 64/148) used to brush their teeth once a day. Mean number of decayed and missing teeth due to caries were 4.73 and 0.628 respectively. Prosthetic needs for maxillary arch were almost the same when compared to the prosthesis in the mandibular arch. Majority of the male (82.1%, 46/56) and female (79.3%, 73/92) subjects were having calculus.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Attitude of the health workers toward oral health was poor as they had significantly higher treatment needs. The present study emphasized the need of regular dental checkup and health education of HCWs.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, MM University, Mullana, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aggnur
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Surgery, Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi, India.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Garg
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, MM University, Mullana, Haryana, India.
authors.forename: Kl
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Veeresha
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health Dentistry, Gian Sagar Dental College and Hospital, Rajpura, Punjab, India.
authors.forename: Rs
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Gambhir
keywords: Dental caries; Health care workers; Knowledge; Oral health; Treatment needs