Oral habits and tooth wear lesions among rural adult males in Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Association between oral habits and tooth wear lesions among adult male population in a rural community in Nigeria was investigated in this cross-sectional study. Participants were 200 consenting males mean aged 35.6 ±11.7 years living in Igbo-Ora community for 5 consecutive years preceding the study. A 15-item semi-structured questionnaire was used to obtain information from the participants. Oral examination to establish the presence of tooth wear lesions was carried out by two examiners who had one day training on the diagnostic criteria for attrition, abrasion and erosion. Frequencies and percentages of relevant variables were reported. Chi-square test was used to test associations between categorical variables at 5% level of significance. Results showed that 53.0% of study subjects had one form of tooth wear lesion. There was a significant association between tooth wear lesions and age, materials used in cleaning the teeth, tooth cleaning techniques, teeth grinding and alcohol consumption (p<0.05). Presence of attrition and multiple tooth wear lesions were significantly associated with discomfort (p<0.05). The study has shown the important relationship between some oral habits and tooth wear lesion in this group of people. This has implication to public health campaigns aimed at reducing the incidence of and progression of tooth wear lesion among the people in the rural community.