Effect of Educational Level on Oral and Dental Health in Peritoneal Dialysis Patients

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Objective: Peritoneal dialysis (PD) one of renal replacement therapy in patients with end stage renal disease. To prevent the infection of peritoneal membran, maintaining of oral and dental health of these patients is very important. In previous studies, we aimed to evaulate the oral and dental health statuses of PD patients with taking into account the effect of educational levels. Material and Methods: Total 59 PD patients were included. The number of decayed, missing and filled teeth and sum of these teeth were detected with DMFT index to evaulate dental health status. Oral hygiene status and habits were calculated with plaque index (PI), debris index (DI) values and freguency of tooth brushing. Patients were divided according to their education level as; noneducated, primary and high school. Results: Noneducated patients had higher DMFT, decay teeth, missing teeth, PI and DI (p=0,040; p=0,0001; p=0,002; p=0,017; p=0,004, respectively), but lower filled teeth (p=0,025) values than high school patients. Frequency of toothbrushing was lower in noneducated patients than primary school patients and high school patients and lower in primary school patients than high school patients (p=0,0001, for all). Noneducated patients had more decay teeth than primary school patients (p=0,001) and primary school patients had more decay and missing teeth than high school patients (p=0,003, p=0,014, respectively). Conclusion: In our study PD patients with higher educational level were more careful to their oral hygiene and hadbetter oral hygiene and dental health scores.

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Peritoneal diyalysis , educational level , oral hygiene , dental health

Kocatepe Medical Journal

287

Kocatepe Medical Journal