Dental health attitudes and behaviour of dental students dental students from 19 country was revealed that regarding to their HU-DBI scores.19 In both pre- the prevalence of smoking among dental students clinical and clinical years, the scores of the Turk- was lower than of the population.28 In accordance ish dental students were higher than their Indian with this, our result was lower than both gen- pairs. The total HU-DBI score of the Turkish den- eral university students rate (42.5%-49.4%) and tal students was 6.53±1.99. This was higher than population smoking rate (33.4%).29,30 The brushing Indian19 (6.06±1.71) and Chinese11 (5.07) dental teeth each tooth carefully with child-sized, hard students, but lower than British11 (7.33), Greek32 bristle toothbrush and with strong strokes was (6.86±1.83), and Japanese32 (7.40±2.55) ones. In the statistically more common in smokers than non- limitations of the study population, Turkey seems smokers (P<.05). Moreover, the use of mouthwash to lie between Eastern and Western countries in was more prevalent among smokers. These may oral health attitudes and behaviour. be because of worries about the staining effect of the smoking on teeth and about having malodour. ocnLusIons Similar smoking rates were found among den- Turkish dental students had rather low oral tal students in Bangladesh, Holland and Norway health awareness in the beginning of their den- (22%, 24% and 24%, respectively).28,31 However, tal education. Oral health behaviour and attitudes the present smoking rate was lower than dental improved significantly in the fourth and fifth years students in Greece (47%), Serbia (43%), Hungary dental education. To serve as a good model for (34%), France (33%) and Italy (%33).28,31 their patients, friends and family members the Previous cross-cultural studies using the HU- improvement should be much higher. To prove DBI in university settings gave us objective data this, the preventive dentistry and periodontol- about oral health behaviours of the students. ogy courses should be started from the first year Komabayashi et al11 noted that 18% of the British of dental education. Further clinical studies are and 77% of the Chinese students were bothered by needed for determining the correlation between the colour of their gums and 72% of the British and the self-report and the intraoral clinical status of 32% of the Chinese dental students were checking dental students. their teeth after brushing. In the present study, for the same items (Items 7 and 12), the percentages AcKnoWLEdGEMEnts for the Turkish dental students were 21% and 83%, The authors wish to thank Dr. Ahu Uraz, Gazi respectively. In another cross-national study, 25% University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of of the Japanese and 45% of the Finnish dental stu- Periodontology, for achieving the data from Gazi dents reported gum bleeding while toothbrushing9 University. compared to the 21% of the students in our study. The lectures on oral hygiene are given in the rEFErEncEs 3rd year of the education. It was expected that all 1. Lin HC, Wong MC, Wang ZJ, Lo EC. Oral health knowl- of the clinical students should know how to brush, edge, attitudes, and practices of Chinese adults. J Dent Res so as to instruct their patients. Nevermore, 25% 2001;80:1466-1470. of the clinical students still declared that they had 2. Paik DI, Moon HS, Horowitz AM, Gift HC, Jeong KL, Suh SS. never been taught professionally how to brush Knowledge of and practices related to caries prevention (Item 10). Maybe that’s because the students among Koreans. J Public Health Dent 1994;54:205-210. might not regarded their educators as dental pro- 3. Okada M, Kawamura M, Kaihara Y, Matsuzaki Y, Kuwahara fessionals because of having oral hygiene instruc- S, Ishidori H, et al. Influence of parents' oral health behav- tions in a lecture in the school but not in their per- iour on oral health status of their school children: an ex- sonal dental visit. ploratory study employing a causal modelling technique. The mean HU-DBI score of the clinical stu- Int J Paediatr Dent 2002;12:101-108. dents was significantly higher the than the pre- 4. Okada M, Kawamura M, Hayashi Y, Takase N, Kozai K. Si- clinical ones (7.47±1.86, and 6.00±1.86, respec- multaneous interrelationship between the oral health be- tively) (Table 4). In contrast to our result, the study havior and oral health status of mothers and their children. from Indian dental students showed no difference J Oral Sci 2008;50:447-452. between the clinical and the preclinical students 258 European Journal of Dentistry