Influence of clinical experience on oral health attitude and behaviour of dental students attending a Nigerian university.

Objective: To evaluate the self-reported oral health attitudes and behaviour among the clinical dental students and to compare the influence of clinical experience on oral health attitudes and behaviour among dental students at the different clinical years in the University of Benin using the modified Hiroshima University Dental Behavior Inventory (HU-DBI).

Methods: The study involved 156 clinical dental students from the University of Benin, Benin City, Nigeria. Demographic data were obtained for age and gender from 4th, 5th and 6th year clinical students. A modified English version of HU-DBI survey consisted of 22 items with dichotomous responses (yes-no) was used in this study. Descriptive statistics was performed for age and clinical level of education. Chi-square text was applied to the percentages of responses. Tamhane's T2 post-hoc multiple comparison for pairwise comparison of the three clinical levels of students was done to determine the differences. Test significance was set at P < 0.05.

Results: The response rate was 87.2%. The mean age of the respondents was 26.2 + 2.4 years. A total of 62 (39.7%) respondents were females and 94 (60.3%) males. Statistically significant differences were found among the various clinical levels of dental students for previous visit to the dentist office, visiting the dentist unless there is toothache, brushing the teeth twice daily and the prevention of gum disease with tooth brushing alone.

Conclusion: There was improvement in the dental students' oral health behaviour and attitudes with increasing level of dental education.