Self-reported oral health knowledge, Behavior and Attitude among students of a dental institution in a neo-capital region, Andhra Pradesh.

Aim: To compare the oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior among pre-clinical and clinical undergraduate dental students. Methodology: A questionnaire based cross-sectional study was conducted among pre-clinical and clinical undergraduate students at a teaching dental institution in Andhra Pradesh.A total of 357students were selected using non- probability purposive sampling technique. Modified English version of Hiroshima University Dental Behavior Inventory (HU-DBI) Questionnaire consisting of 31 closed ended questions has been implemented in this study after performing appropriate psychometric analysis. Results:Knowledge, attitude and behavior differences between preclinical and clinical students were analyzed by Student’s t-testand statistically significant difference was obtained with p value of 0.004.Chi- square test was employed for dichotomous datai.e. to find the differences in the distribution of "yes" among students from the different academic year as well as between male and female students.Majority of females (86.3%) have responded that they don’t use tooth brush with hard bristles for cleaning their teeth which is high when compared to males (73.4%) and the difference is statistically significant (p=0.01). There is also a statistically significant difference with respect to smoking habits between males and females (p=0.003). CONCLUSION: The outcome of this study shows clinical students having higher oral health knowledge, attitude and behavior scoresthan preclinical students and also the self-reported quality of overall oral health behavior was more pronounced in clinical students.Specific educational and awarenessprograms should be planned for the preclinical students. Keywords: Dental students, Oral health knowledge, Oral health behavior,Oral health education.