Original Article

Year : 2018 | Volume : 6 | Issue : 2 | Page : 45 - 50

An Assessment of Oral Health Status and Treatment Needs of Professional Bus Drivers in Chennai

Aparna Sukumaran, Madan Kumar Parangimalai Diwakar, Shivakumar Mahadeva Shastry

Department of Public Health Dentistry, Ragas Dental College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Address for correspondence:

Dr. Aparna Sukumaran,

Department of Public Health Dentistry, Ragas Dental College and Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

E‐mail: abi_aparna1986@yahoo.com

Abstract

Background:

Bus drivers represent a special population group or community who deserve to be attended both on oral and general health due to the various occupational and environmental hazards they encounter in their daily life. The aim of this study was to assess the oral health status and treatment needs of professional bus drivers in Chennai.

Methods:

Cross sectional data was collected from 860 professional bus drivers in Chennai city. A specially designed questionnaire was used to assess the demographic variables, oral hygiene practices, tobacco usage, sweet consumption and work related stress. A clinical examination was done according to WHO criteria 1997 and recorded using WHO oral health assessment form.

Results:

The mean age of the study population was 40.25 years. With regard to sweet score, about 739 (85.9%) drivers were in “watch out” zone. There was significant correlation between sweet scores and DMFT (P = .000). About 524 (60.9%) drivers felt stress at work, 78(9.1%) drivers had leukoplakia, 5 (0.6%) had ulceration, 7 (0.8%) had candidiasis and 30(3.5%) had other conditions. The mean DMFT was 5.53. About 471 (54,8%) had dental calculus, 107 (12.4%) had periodontal pocket depth 6mm or more.

Conclusion:

The oral health status of bus drivers was poor with high prevalence of periodontal disease and dental caries.

Keywords: Bus drivers, oral health status, treatment needs

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

How to cite this article:

Sukumaran A, Diwakar MK, Shastry SM. An assessment of oral health status and treatment needs of professional bus drivers in Chennai. Int J Community Dent 2018;6:45-50.