Relationship between oral hygiene behaviors and self-esteem among students of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences

Introduction: Self-esteem is an important concept used in psychology to reflect a person's overall appraisal of his or her own value. The present study aimed to assess the relationship between self-esteem and oral hygiene behaviors among student of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences (IUMS).Materials and Methods: In this descriptive-analytical study a stratified sampling procedure was used to select 320 students from 7 faculties of IUMS. In the second stage, the subjects were randomly selected from each faculty to participate in the study. A questionnaire was used to collect demographic data and data on oral hygiene behaviors. Self-esteem was assessed by the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Mann-Whitney test, Spearman’s correlation coefficient and descriptive statistical methods were used by SPSS software for data analysis.Results: A total of 63.5% of the subjects were female and 36.5% were male. Mean score of self-esteem in the participants was 20.05. Self-esteem score had a significantly positive correlation with economic status (p value < 0.05). The total score of oral hygiene behaviors in female students (20.86 ± 3.58) was significantly higher than that in male students (19.32 ± 4.02) (p value = 0.012). Tooth brushing frequency, use of dental floss, fluoride consumption, dental checkup frequency and also absence of oral malodor and absence of untreated dental caries were significantly associated with higher self-esteem scores (p value < 0.05). Conclusion: Self-esteem as a common psychological factor is correlated with oral hygiene behaviors. Promoting self-esteem could help people improve oral hygiene behaviors. Key words: Self-esteem, Oral hygiene, Predisposing factors