Association between knowledge and practices in dental health of Diabetes Mellitus patients at Photharam hospital

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the association between knowledge and practices in dental health of 44 diabetic patients at Diabetes Mellitus clinic of Photharam hospital, using questionnaires and interview with the patients. The duration of this study was from March to April 2008. From this study revealed that 81.8 % of patients didn't know about xerostomia and fungal infection due to Diabetes Mellitus. There were 77.3 % didn't know about the risk of Periodontitis, 72.7 % didn't know that Diabetes Mellitus patients who have teeth should get oral examination every 6 months and 79.5% didn't know that edentulous patients must get oral examination every 1 year. The dental health practices of Diabetes Mellitus patients found that the group of patients who didn't get dental services was 26.2% and 13.6% used to get dental service in last 6 months. The correlation of getting dental service and dental health knowledge aspect showed that the times of patients who knew the risk of dental caries due to Diabetes Mellitus and the group when knew about blood sugar examination before oral surgery and extraction was significant more than the group of patients who didn't know these knowledge (p= 0.012, 0.026). The dental services in last 6 months was related to knowledge of oral examination every 6 months in Diabetes Mellitus patients (p=0.032). This result indicated that most of Diabetes Mellitus patients didn't have knowledge and proper practice for prevention oral condition problems due to Diabetes Mellitus.