Objective. Our aim was to evaluate the association between dental attendance and dental fear while considering the simultaneous effects of perceived oral health and treatment need, satisfaction with oral health services, age, gender, marital status, and attained level of education. Material and methods. The two-stage stratified cluster sample (n=8028) represented Finnish adults aged 30 years and older. The response rate to this nationwide sample was 88%. Dental fear was measured with the question: “How afraid are you of visiting a dentist?” Multiple logistic regression analyses were used to determine the association between dental fear and dental attendance, including the following independent variables: perceived oral health, perceived treatment need, satisfaction with oral health services, age, gender, marital status, and attained level of education. Results. Among all ages, except 30 to 34-year-olds, irregular attenders were more likely to be very afraid of visiting a dentist than regular attenders were. The association was stronger the older the age group. Only age modified the association between dental fear and attendance. Irregular dental attendance can be attributed to high dental fear (etiologic fraction among exposed) in 41% of cases. Conclusion. Reducing dental fear would increase the number of regular attenders, especially among older age groups. Individuals for whom oral health services have been provided regularly since childhood seem to continue to use these services regularly despite high dental fear.

Objective. The aim of this study was to determine whether there are differences between oral health-related knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and behaviors of children and their parents, and to identify the family-related factors associated with children's poor or good oral health-related behavior. Material and Methods. The data were gathered by means of questionnaires from 11–12-year-old schoolchildren and their parents who replied without having knowledge of the answers of the others. Differences between subgroups of children were analyzed by cross-tabulation, and the factors related to children's good or poor oral health-related behavior by logistic regression analyses. Results. Parents of children who reported good oral health-related behavior had better knowledge and more favorable behaviors than those of other parents. Predictors for a child's poor oral health-related behavior were the child's poor knowledge, male gender, the parent's frequent consumption of sweets, and the parent's infrequent use of xylitol gum. When a less strict threshold for the child's poor oral health-related behavior was used, more predictors entered the model: the parent's unfavorable use of fluoride toothpaste; among girls, the parent's lack of knowledge; and among children whose mother's occupation level was high, the parent's infrequent use of xylitol gum. The parents of children whose oral health behavior was favorable were more likely to have a high level occupation and favorable oral health-related behaviors. Conclusions. Oral health-related knowledge of children and their parents seems to be associated with children's oral health-related behavior. Parents’ behaviors, but not attitudes, were associated with children's oral health behavior.

The aim of this study was to determine the occurrence of oral health impacts among patients with severe malocclusions and dentofacial deformities before treatment. A further aim was to evaluate the effect of gender or the type of malocclusion on the oral impacts. The study comprised 151 adult patients who were referred for orthodontic or surgical-orthodontic treatment to the Oral and Maxillofacial Department, Oulu University Hospital, Finland during the years 2001–2004. The study group consisted of 92 females and 59 males with a mean age of 35.5 years [standard deviation (SD) 11.5 years, range 16–64 years]. A self-completed Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP)-14 questionnaire was used to measure oral impacts during a 1 month reference period. The prevalence, extent, and severity scores were calculated from the OHIP-14. Malocclusions were registered at clinical examination. The prevalence and mean extent and severity scores were compared among malocclusion groups and between genders. Statistical significance was evaluated with Mann–Whitney, Kruskall–Wallis, Chi-squared, and Fisher's exact tests. The prevalence of oral impacts perceived fairly or very often was 70.2 per cent. The mean severity and extent scores were 17.2 (SD 10.5, range 0–45) and 2.5 (SD 2.6, range 0–10), respectively. Physical pain as well as psychological discomfort and disability were the most commonly perceived oral impacts. Being self-conscious, feeling tense, having difficulties in relaxing, and being somewhat irritable with other people were more common in females than in males. No differences were observed in oral impacts among the malocclusion groups. Compared with a ‘normal’ population, patients with severe malocclusions report high levels of oral impacts. Females reported oral impacts more often than males.