title: Evaluation of the Oral Health Knowledge, Attitude and Behavior of the Preclinical and Clinical Dental Students.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Dentists play very important role in the oral health education of the community. Thus it is important to know the status of knowledge, attitude, and behavior toward the maintenance of oral health at the student level. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the oral health knowledge, attitude, and behavior among preclinical and clinical dental students.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was conducted on 147 dental students from 1(st) to 4(th) year of Malabar Dental College, Kerala, in the year of March-June 2010 and was carried out with the help of 30 questionnaires. Age, gender and academic year data were recorded. Statistical analysis was performed with the help of SPSS version 20 using the Student's t-test and one-way ANOVA tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The difference in scores of oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior between preclinical and clinical dental students was found statistically highly significant (Student's t-test, P < 0.001). The variation of scores of knowledge, attitude, and behavior also showed highly significant increase with the year of study (one-way ANOVA, P < 0.001). While the difference in scores between males and females showed that females have better oral health knowledge than males, but the difference was not statistically significant (Student's t-test, P > 0.01). The present study thus showed improvement of knowledge, attitude and behavior with the academic years and there was no bias of gender with reference to oral health.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior showed improved results from 1(st) to 4(th) year dental students, it should be improved in order to serve better for the community in the future.
authors.affiliation: Associate Professor, Department of Periodontics, Malabar Dental College, Edapal, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: Shabeer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ahamed
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Conservative Dentistry, Sree Anjaneya Dental College, Calicut, Kerala, India.
authors.forename: Shabna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Moyin
authors.affiliation: Reader, Department of Pedodontics, Sree Anjaneya Dental College, Calicut, Kerala.
authors.forename: Sameer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Punathil
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Periodontology, Vasantdada Patil Dental College and Hospital, Sangli, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Neha A
authors.initials: NA
authors.lastname: Patil
authors.affiliation: Senior Lecturer, Department of Periodontology, School of Dental Sciences, Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Deemed University, Karad, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Vishwajeet Tulshidas
authors.initials: VT
authors.lastname: Kale
authors.affiliation: Senior Resident, Department of Periodontics, Vasantrao Naik Government Medical College and Hospital, Yavatmal, Maharashtra, India.
authors.forename: Ganesh
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Pawar
keywords: Dental students; health professionals; oral health