HABITS OF ORAL HYGIENE AND DIET OF ADOLESCENTES OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SCHOOL IN SALVADOR, BAHIA

Abstract

Among the oral problems, the carie is the diseases most prevalent in the adolescence and the habits of oral hygiene and diet are strong determinative for its development. Thus, the proposal of this work was to get information about these habits. A structuralized questionnaire was applied to 1035 adolescents of public and private schools in the city of Salvador-Bahia. The data had been consolidated in the SPSS, version 7.5. According to the results, the reasons for which they brush teeth are: prevention of caries (54,8%) or other oral diseases (14,7%), hygiene (43,9%), good breath (33,2%), aesthetic (19,7%) and social conviviality (3,3%). The majority (98,5%), brushes teeth every day, and of these, 67.4% brush three or more times on a day. 33.8% do not use dental wire and 66.2% of those that had told to use it, 51.5% only do it sometimes. Relative to diet, 58% answered that they eat snacks more than tree times a day and among the consumed foods most of them are the candies, chips and soda. We conclude that the adolescents had a good routine of teeth brushing; however the use of the dental wire does not consist in a habit. The consumed foods are of high cariogenic potential and the consumption frequency is high. It is essential, in this way, the development of programs to promote oral health for this population group. DESCRIPTORS: Adolescent. Oral Hygiene. Diet.