Oral health knowledge, attitude and behaviour of 12-year-old suburban and rural school children in Nigeria.

The aim of the study was to investigate the oral health knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of 12-year-old primary school children living in suburban and rural Nigeria. A total of 574 children mostly from low socioeconomic status were studied through questionnaires. Relatively high level of oral health knowledge and positive attitudes to prevention were found. Majority of suburban children (72.5%) cleaned their teeth with toothbrush and toothpaste while most of the rural dwellers (49.8%) used chewing sticks. Overall, 83.5 per cent of all the children had never visited the dentist despite the fact that most of them believed it was necessary to visit the dentist for check-up. It was concluded that oral health education programme should be targeted to the need of the communities.