Self-percieved need for dental care: a questionnaire study.

Abstract

Aim: To assess the prevalence of perceived need of problem based dental care.

Objectives: - To evaluate the self-perceived need for dental care in general population.To assess the need for any type of dental care in general population of Belgaum city.To assess the need of general dental check-ups.

Methodology: A convenient sample of 300 in the range of 20-60 years of age was randomly selected from general population of Belgaum city. The questionnaire consisted of general information of the respondent like name, age, sex, address .The respondents were asked to mark the answers, confidentiality of the results is assure.

Results: More number of males are in a need of dental treatment than compared to females .Many people think that their teeth need to be cleaned by dentist.

Conclusion: The findings indicate that although most of the people were not satisfied with condition of oral health and describe their condition of teeth as fairly poor and mostly visited the dentist when they are in pain. Most of the population do neither have appointment to see a dentist nor they ought to go to a dentist for check up very soon .Many people think that their teeth need to be cleaned by dentist.