Oral hygiene and periodontal status among Terapanthi Svetambar Jain monks in India.

The main objective of the study was to determine the oral hygiene levels and periodontal status among Jain monks attending a Chaturmass in Udaipur, India. To date, no study has been conducted on Jain monks. The study comprises of 180 subjects and the overall response rate was 76% among them. Oral hygiene status was assessed by the Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S) of Greene, Vermillion14 (1964), and periodontal status was assessed by the Community Periodontal Index. Additional information was collected regarding food habits, education level and oral hygiene habits. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Chi Square Test and Step-wise multiple linear regression analysis were carried out using SPSS Software (11.0). The results showed that the oral hygiene status of Jain monks was poor and only 5.6% of the subjects had good oral hygiene. Overall periodontal disease prevalence was 100% with bleeding and shallow pocket contributing a major part (72.8%) among all the age groups (p < 0.001). Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that oral hygiene habits, caloric intake and education level explained a variance of 11.7% for the Oral hygiene index collectively. The findings confirmed that Jain monks have poor oral hygiene and an increased prevalence of periodontal disease compared to that of the similarly aged general population because, as a part of their religion, many Jain individuals avoid brushing their teeth especially during fasting, keeping in mind not to harm the microorganisms present in the mouth.