Abstract
Introduction: To provide good dental health care to patients and healthy individuals, understanding the myths and misconceptions is very important. In the field of dentistry, most myths lead the patients to a wrong protocol, which intern can lead the dentist to a state where it is diffcult to provide proper and satisfying treatment.
Aim: To determine the prevalence of myths and misconception regarding oral health in Saudi Arabia.
Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered on the patients visiting a dental institute in Taif city, from March 2018 to April 2018. The questionnaire consists of 14 self-structured close-ended questions about common dental myths. The questionnaire was administered to patients at the registration counter. Completion of the questionnaire took 10-15 minutes and participation in the study was completely voluntarily. The data collected were coded and entered into SPSS inc., IBM, version 21.0. Descriptive statistics were expressed in the form of frequency and percentage. Chi-square test was applied to determine the statistical significance.
Results: A total of 121 subjects participated in the study. Majority of the participants (69%) were in the 20-40 year age group, 81% of them were males and about 67% of the subjects had completed University level education. Males and subjects with a higher level of education fared better in their responses. More than half of the respondents 56% believed that "When gums bleed it is better not to brush your teeth". A few respondents (44%) believed that "Using home stuff like coal, salt, etc., make your teeth whiter". Around 35% of participants in the study believed that "Placing of milk bottle inside the mouth of the baby during sleep does not harm teeth". About 34% of the subjects believed that no dental treatment should be done during pregnancy.
Conclusion: Results of this study show that generally, people believe in various myths in dentistry which results in poor oral health. This might be due to lack of knowledge and awareness about dental health and its importance.