v
Dr Amber Abbas, Dr Syeda Asma Saad, Dr Nimra
Introduction: In man, health and disease are not static conditions but exist on a continuum and on this continuum; exists arbitrary points or boundaries to delineate specific diseases. Objectives: The main objective of the study is to analyse the knowledge and practices about denture hygiene among complete denture wearers. Material and methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in Bhitai Dental & Medical College, Mirpur Khas during June 2019 to March 2020. The data was collected through questionnaire. This questionnaire was designed to gather the socio demographic characteristics, assess the denture hygiene knowledge, attitudes, and practice advice. This 23-item questionnaire included five knowledge related questions (plaque on denture bases, denture cleansing aids, etc.), each of these questions had three options to choose from: Yes, no and do not know. Results: The majority of the dentists' were females 90 (54%) and the greater part of the study population were DPs qualified with just a bachelor degree 142 (85%). As presented in this table, when the subjects were questioned if oral biofilms on complete denture are associated with conditions like denture stomatitis and other serious systemic diseases, 25 (18%) of the DPs responded wrongly. Similarly, neither the DPs nor the specialists in this study could come to a common consensus to use or not to use regular toothpaste for denture cleansing. Thirty-two percentages of the DPs cited that cleaning the tissue bearing side of the denture affects its retention in the mouth. Conclusion: It is concluded that within the limitations of this study, most of the denture wearers had little knowledge of denture cleaning and hygiene practices. This study had revealed that oral hygiene habits and practices may not always be correlated positively with age, gender, method of prosthesis care and number of years of usage of prosthesis.