A knowledge, attitude, and practices study regarding dental floss among dentists in India

To assess the knowledge, attitude, self-reported practices, and prescription patterns regarding dental floss amongst a select population of dentists in India.

A pretested 30-item questionnaire was self-administered by authors to the dental faculty and postgraduate students in dental schools in Delhi-National Capital Region (NCR). Nine dental institutes were selected by simple random sampling procedure among 15 institutions and a total of 255 dentists were included in the study.

The data obtained were analyzed by SPSS version 18. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies were calculated and Pearson's Chi-square test was used with P value fixed at 0.05.

There was lack of adequate knowledge regarding dental floss, among dentists in India. 78% of the dentists responded that the routine use of dental floss was necessary for good periodontal health. Majority of the dentists cited lack of awareness, availability, and cost as the major factors affecting floss usage. Lack of training in the dental education programs may have an impact on the prescription patterns as well. 15.3% of those surveyed do not use floss at all. 63.9% of the dentists prescribed floss routinely to their patients and considered factors like education, occupation, and socioeconomic status of the patient before prescribing dental floss.

Health education programs regarding dental floss are necessary to create awareness among the general population and adequate training at undergraduate level is also essential to increase the prescription practices. Dentists should practice recommended oral self-care and act as role models.