Oral health knowledge, attitude and behaviour among Saudi school students in Jeddah city J.M.A. Farsi a, *, M.M. Farghaly b , N. Farsi b a Department of Oral Basic and Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, P.O. Box 80209, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia b Department of Preventive Dental Sciences, Faculty of Dentistry, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia Received 4 June 2003; accepted 8 August 2003 KEYWORDS Oral health; Knowledge; Attitude; Behaviour; Saudi Arabia; Students; Preventive dental behaviour Summary Objectives. To assess the knowledge, attitude and behaviour in relation to periodontal health status among Saudi intermediate and high school students living in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Methods. A dental health questionnaire was distributed to a random sample of a total of 2586 Saudi students from intermediate and high school, aged 12 – 18 years residing in Jeddah. Results. While about 87.1% knew that tooth brush helps prevent periodontal disease, only 33.1% knew that using dental floss helps in preventing periodontal disease. Females used brushing and flossing more than males, while males used miswak more than females. Tooth brushing ðP , 0:001Þ and dental floss ðP , 0:015Þ were used more frequently among private subjects, while miswak was utilized more frequently among governmental school students ðP , 0:005Þ: Dental pain was found to be the main reason for visiting the dentist among the target group. Conclusions. It appears that knowledge, attitude, and behaviour concerning periodontal health among young Saudi school students living in Jeddah city are in need of improvement. q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Introduction The American Dental Association recommends that, to avoid oral diseases, individual should brush and floss at least once a day and visit a dentist regularly. 1 Dental flossing and tooth brushing are the most commonly performed oral self-care behaviour. 2 Recent studies carried out in Michigan have found that on an average subjects reported brushing their teeth about twice a day. Around 90% of the population brushed at least once a day. About one-third of the sample reported flossing at least once a day. Three quarters of the population reported making periodic dental visits at least once a year. 3 Further, females are more likely to brush daily, as are those individuals with more education and higher income. 3–5 Historically, few individuals have practised flossing, but the use has slowly increased with women and the more edu- cated. 6 In recent studies, nearly one-third of adults reported flossing on a daily basis. 3,5 Most children (73–83%) in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Austria and Norway brushed their teeth twice a day. Tooth brushing was less frequent among boys than among 0300-5712/$ - see front matter q 2003 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jdent.2003.08.002 Journal of Dentistry (2004) 32, 47–53 www.elsevier.com/locate/jdent *Corresponding author. Tel.: þ 966-55681533; fax: þ 966- 6404002. E-mail address: jamila_farsi@yahoo.com