Oral hygiene habits amongst chromium mine workers-A cross sectional study

BACKGROUND: Oral health means much more than just having healthy teeth. Various oral diseases have significant side effects on general health; also systemic diseases can show a reciprocal effect on oral health. So oral health needs to be regarded by multi-professional approaches and should be combined into comprehensive health-promotion strategies and actions. The present study aimed to determine oral hygiene habits amongst chromium mine workers. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The present observational, cross-sectional study was conducted for a period of 4 months from April to October 2017. The present study evaluated the oral hygiene habits amongst the chromium mine workers of Odisha. A total of 1140 males were enrolled in the study. The study was conducted after the institutional ethical board clearance and informed written consent for participation in the study and written consent was obtained from all in their vernacular language. Data were entered using MS-EXCEL 2016 and the statistical analysis was done using SPSS software. RESULTS: There were 91.9% of subjects who brushed once a day, 6.9% brushed twice a day and 1.1% brushed after every meal. The results of the study showed that 75.9% and 8.1% of subjects used tooth paste and tooth powder respectively for brushing there teeth regularly.the results of this study also showed that 11.9% of study participants used indigenous means (other means) as an aid to tooth brushing. CONCLUSION: There is a lack of awareness and education about oral hygiene practices amongst mine workers due to which they do not resort to good oral hygiene practices.