Association between Normative Oral Health Status and Self - Rated Oral Health among Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus Patients Attending a Teaching Dental Hospital

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus is a multisystem disorder and a life style disease which requires a multipronged approach for its management, where in patient awareness and self ? care practices have an important role to play to reduce burden of disease and its complications. Self-rated oral health is a valid and useful summary indicator of overall oral health status and quality of life. However, few studies on perception of oral health have been conducted among adults. Objective: To determine the association between oral health status and self-rated oral health among type 2 diabetic mellitus patients. Methods: A purposive sampling method was adopted in a teaching dental hospital to meet the sample size of 250 patients. The data was collected among individuals above the age 35yrs through global self-rated oral health assessment tool1 and the oral health status was assessed based on WHO criteria 2013. Results: 41.2% respondents reported their self - rated oral health status as good. Clinical data demonstrated that 47.2% had dental caries; periodontal pockets were seen in 91.2%, followed by gingival bleeding observed among 78.4% of the participants.20% of participants were denture wearers. Dental caries and edentulism were significantly associated with poor self - rated oral health. Conclusion: Self - rated oral health is consistent with objective health status and can serve as a global measure of health status in the general population. There was association seen between oral health status and self ? rated oral health. However, the association was significant for some parameter like dental caries and edentulism. The evaluation of these parameters may be a useful approach in routine dental examination to improve self-rated oral health.