Nathan Ukuoghene Ikimi¹*, Lawrence Igbinosa² and Nkereuwem Sunday Etukudoh³

¹Consultant Family Dentistry, Dental and Maxillofacial Department, State House Clinic, State House, Abuja-FCT, Nigeria
²Consultant Family Dentistry, Department of Oral Diagnosis and Dental Radiology, UNIBEN/UBTH, Edo State, Nigeria
³Department of Haematology, Federal School of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Nathan Ukuoghene Ikimi, Consultant Family Dentistry, Dental and Maxillofacial Department, State House Clinic, State House, Abuja-FCT, Nigeria.

Received: August 21, 2021; Published: September 18, 2021

Abstract

Background: The Dental therapist in Nigeria is trained among other things, to carry out prophylactic cleaning of the teeth of patients and to give oral hygiene instructions. This in important for good oral hygiene status of the patient.

Objectives: This study was designed to find out if the dental therapist has enough knowledge to carry out her functions in the oral health care management of patients and if she is putting to practice what she is learning.

Method: This a descriptive cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey among 370 Dental therapy students at the Federal College of Dental Technology, Trans-Ekulu, Enugu State, Nigeria. The questionnaire was divided into three sections consisting of Biodata, Likert-scaled questions, and closed-ended questions to determine knowledge and practice. Data collected were analysed using SPSS statistical package, version 20.

Results: Most of the respondents, representing 74% (206) have a good knowledge of toothbrushing when compared with the 26% (74) whose knowledge is fair and about 98.6% recommends changing of the toothbrush every 3 months. However, only 1.4% knew about decontamination of toothbrush using chlorhexidine gluconate or sodium hypochlorite. On the care of toothbrush, 96.4% reported that it is not recommended to keep toothbrush in the bathroom, while 100% completely disagreed with keeping toothbrush in a bathroom with attached toilet. The toothbrushing practice of respondents is good as shown by the 78.60% of the respondents.

Conclusion: This study shows that the knowledge of the dental therapy student in Enugu is good and can be said to be adequate. She is also putting that knowledge to practice in her personal life and dental practice.

Keywords: Toothbrush; Knowledge; Practice; Enugu

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Citation

Citation: Nathan Ukuoghene Ikimi., et al. “Toothbrush: Knowledge and Practice of Undergraduate Students of Dental Therapy in Enugu, Nigeria”. Acta Scientific Dental Sciences 5.10 (2021): 61-67.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2021 Nathan Ukuoghene Ikimi., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.