HU-DBI item No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 74 25 39 22 14 30 25 32 61 45 28 83 77 70 47 24 24 32 30 33 57 75 19 14 22 14 20 74 13 21 19 14 10 13 14 76 25 43 82 73 51 28 40 15 17 29 51 61 64 31 18 33 28 32 74 21 32 21 14 23 21 25 67 38 33 83 76 63 40 30 21 27 30 40 58 74 23 15 26 19 24 NS P<.001 P<.001 NS NS P<.001 P<.001 P<.001 P<.001 P<.001 P<.001 NS NS P<.001 P<.001 P<.001 P<.01 P<.001 NS P<.001 NS NS P<.001 NS P<.01 P<.001 P<.001 Dental health attitudes and behaviour of dental students cal students, but (25%) of the clinical ones had never taken oral hygiene instructions profession- ally (P<.001). The preclinical students were sig- nificantly (P<.001) more often consulting a dentist when they only had a toothache (47%) than the clinical students (28%). The percentage of the clinical students who were told by their dentists that they carried out accurate tooth brushing (51%) was significant- ly higher (P<.001) than the preclinical students (33%). Table 3. Percentage of ‘agree’ response according to the level of education. Preclinical Clinical Total P-value* 256 *: Chi-square test (P≤.05), NS: Not significant. Table 4. Comparison of the HU-DBI scores between preclinical and clinical students. HU-DBI score *: Mann Whitney U test P≤.05 statistically significant. **: Between preclinical and clinical students. European Journal of Dentistry Preclinical (Mean±SD) 6.00±1.86 Clinical (Mean±SD) 7.47±1.86 Total (Mean±SD) 6.53±1.99 P-value* <.001** Nevermore, 40% of the dental students put off going to the dentist until they had a toothache al- though they reported low dental anxiety (Item 1, 74%). Only a small percentage of the students had been told by their dentists that they brushed very well (Item 20, 40%). Mean HU-DBI scores The mean HU-DBI score of the clinical students (7.47±1.86) was significantly (P<.001) higher than that of the preclinical students (6.00±1.86). The overall mean score of the students was 6.53±2.00 (Table 4). Logistic regression Table 5 shows the estimated coefficients and related statistics the logistic regression model that predicts the course of the origin. Interpre- tation of this analysis as follows: Preclinical students were more likely to brush with strong strokes, to use hard bristle toothbrush, to worry about the colour of their teeth, to think that they would have false teeth in future and daily brush- ing had no affect on their teeth and to seek dental care when the symptoms arise (items 3, 6, 8, 10, 14, 15, 17 and 18). Clinical dental students were more likely to receive good feedback about their brushing, to use dental floss, to clean their teeth without toothpaste and to smoke more than half pack per day (items 11, 20, 23 and 26). dIscuIon Informing the patients about the correct oral habits and raising their awareness on how to pre- vent oral diseases are important accountabilities of oral health providers. Since dental students are the health professionals of the future, they must adopt accurate oral health attitudes and behaviour in their school years for directing their patients properly. In the Turkish dental faculties, preventive dentistry and periodontology courses are given in the first semester of the third year of education and students come in contact with patients in the second semester of the third year.