Factors influencing perception of oral health among adolescents in Sri Lanka.

Aim: To determine factors associated with perceived oral health status among adolescents in Sri Lanka.

Design: A descriptive, cross-sectional study where the data were collected by means of an oral examination and questionnaires to both children and their parents.

Setting: Schools in the Colombo district, Sri Lanka.

Participants: 1,218, 15-year-old adolescents who were selected from 48 schools using a stratified cluster sampling techniques.

Results: Nearly 21% of the sample rated their oral health as poor. According to the hierarchical logistic regression models the percentage of variance in perceived oral health explained by the four groups of independent variables namely: socio-demographic variables, oral health behaviours, clinical oral health indicators and subjective measures of oral health status were 3, 1, 4 and 7% respectively. The final model indicated that poor perceived oral health was significantly associated with low household income, not using dental services, presence of gingivitis, being aware about the presence of oral disease, presence of toothache and other oral symptoms and perceived need for dental care. It accounted for 15% of the variation in perceived oral health.

Conclusions: Subjective measures of oral health contributed most to the single-item perceived oral health rating of adolescents. Socio-demographic variables and normative measures of untreated caries, missing teeth and gingivitis had a limited role in explaining perceived oral health in Sri Lankan adolescents.