Association Of Socioeconomic Status With Oral Hygiene Status And Periodontal Status Among Patients Attending Private Dental College - A Retrospective Analysis

Socio-economic status has long held interest for its effect on general and oral health. Most evidence indicates that socio-economic inequalities are associated with oral health status. Periodontal health status is associated with age, smoking, systemic diseases, gender, genetics and utilisation of dental care. The study was aimed to find the association between socioeconomic status with oral hygiene and periodontal status. This retrospective study was conducted using records of patients visited private Dental College. A total of 98 consecutive case records of patient age ranging from 18-75 years were retrieved. Data on the oral hygiene status, periodontal status and socioeconomic status from their records were entered and subjected to statistical analysis. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square association was done to find the association of socioeconomic status with oral hygiene and periodontal status. One-way ANOVA was done to compare the mean oral hygiene and periodontal scores among different socio-economic status. Majority of the patients were from the upper middle class (31.6%). Most of the patients had fair oral hygiene status (54.1%) and also most of the patients had the beginning of the periodontal disease (60.2%). There was no significant association of socioeconomic status with oral hygiene status and periodontal status (p=0.5 and p=0.9). Mean oral hygiene score and periodontal score was high among lower middle class patients with no significant mean difference. Within the limits of the study, it was found that the upper middle class and upper class patients had better oral hygiene status and periodontal status due to multiple dental visits and appropriate use of oral hygiene measures and materials.