Vol. 6, Issue 9 (2017)

Background: Poor oral health can have a profound effect on the quality of life. The experience of pain, endurance of dental abscesses, problems with eating and chewing, embarrassment about the shape of teeth or about missing, discoloured or damaged teeth can adversely affect people's daily lives and well-being. Oral hygiene knowledge contributes to good oral health, but unless attitudes and habits are developed and put into practice, little will be gained.It is important to review the knowledge, attitude, and practices of the oral health of children, even though they are educated, with the objectives of inculcating healthy life style practices to last for a lifetime.

Methodology: A descriptive cross sectional survey was conducted in the self administered questionnaire that assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice on oral hygiene measures among 100 young students residing in rural areas of Kanchipuram.

Results: Most of the students residing in rural areas have knowledge about cleaning their teeth and tongues except the knowledge about interdental aids and in the use of mouthwash. And most of them cleaned their teeth using tooth brush and tooth paste.

Conclusion: The toothbrush with toothpaste is the most common oral hygiene aid used for cleaning teeth, it was observed that a greater number of students brushed their teeth twice daily.