KNOWLEDGE ATTITUDE & PRACTICE REGARDING HALITOSIS AMONG PATIENTS ATTENDING THE DENTAL OPD AT A PRIVATE DENTAL HOSPITAL IN KARACHI

Abstract

Halitosis is a universal medico social problem in all communities. It refers to the unpleasant odor that originates from the mouth or elsewhere. Halitosis is multi factorial and may involve both oral and non-oral conditions. Many adults suffer from genuine halitosis occasionally, whilst an estimated 1030% of the population suffers from this problem regularly. More than 75% of all cases have an oral origin and the most frequent are poor oral hygiene, tongue coating, periodontal disease and decreased salivary flow rate. At least 50 % of the population suffers from halitosis and around 25 % of these individuals experience such a severe problem that it affects their social life. This Descriptive Cross Sectional Study was carried out in patients attending the dental OPD at Private Dental Hospital, Gadap Town, and Karachi. The data were collected by self-structured questionnaire related to personal information regarding knowledge, attitude and practice related to halitosis and convenience sampling technique was used. The written informed consent was taken from participants. The SPSS 20 version software was used for analysis. 56.3% (214) were males and 43.7% (166) were females. Out of 380 study participants, 208 (54.7%) had the knowledge about bad breath while 172 (45.3%) subjects were unaware about it. 209 (55%) individual cleaned their teeth with toothpaste and miswak (wooden stick), 141 (37.1%) individuals did not use toothpaste / miswak and 30 (7.9%) used occasionally. Knowledge, attitude and practice about halitosis among the studied groups were not satisfactory.