Oral health habits, attitudes and behaviors of Portuguese adolescents.

Purpose: Oral health has a profound impact on the health of adolescents. The aim of the present study was to obtain information on habits, knowledge and oral hygiene attitudes of Portuguese teenagers and to study the gender differences concerning these issues.

Methods: A total of 1203 adolescents participated in the study (55.8% females; mean age, 14.9 years). To recruit participants, a national network of community dental hygienists, working in the health centers, was created, and adolescents were contacted at the schools. A questionnaire was applied in the classroom, during school hours, under supervision of one researcher and the classroom teacher, after collection of informed consent forms.

Results: Portuguese adolescents do not seem to have dental fear but have some anxiety when at the dental office; girls are more anxious than boys. Girls are also more concerned with esthetics and aware of dental problems and care about oral health of family and friends. Parental supervision is more relevant for boys in order to obtain better compliance with dental care; however, 97.2% of the adolescents do not consider maintaining teeth throughout the lifetime as relevant.

Conclusion: Teenagers recognize dental professionals as educators and oral health as relevant in their lives. It is possible to assume that gender has an influence on adolescent's habits, behavior and attitudes regarding oral hygiene. There is a difference between boys and girls concerning their habits, knowledge and attitudes in dental hygiene; this difference may show the need to create different strategies for oral health promotion for these two groups of adolescents.