ABSTRACT
Aim The study was to assess the oral health knowledge, attitude and practice among prison inmates of District Jail in North India. Materials and method It was a cross sectional study conducted on 570 prisoners after meeting the eligibility criteria. A 23 item closed ended structured questionnaire was used to assess the oral health related knowledge, attitude and practice among prison inmates. Results The results show that oral health knowledge was poor among prisoner as 51% of the subjects did not know about the meaning of gum bleeding and 83% of subjects have no knowledge of dental plaque. Knowledge about injurious effects tobacco was better. Prisoner shows their negative attitude towards dental treatment as 45.6% of the subjects think, it is necessary to visit a dentist and 62.24 % 0f the subjects had never visit to a dental clinic even before imprisonment. 38.66 % of the subjects had their last visit for more than five year ago. Tooth extraction (27.4%) was the most common cause of last visit. Practice among prisoner reveals, 58% of the subjects do brush their teeth at least once a day and most of the subjects 90% use toothbrush and paste for cleaning their teeth. Most of the subjects (79%) brush their teeth in morning and 59% perform brushing for more than 2 minute. Conclusion Prisons are no more the detention or punishment centers. Oral health education should be imparted to the prisoner time to time and De-addiction clinics or programs should be established in the prisons.
KEYWORDS:Oral Health, attitude, Practices, Jail, Prison Inmates