Nutrition Awareness and Oral Health among Dental Patients in Palestine: A Cross-Sectional Study

Table 2

Oral health practices according to gender presented in n (%).

		Total		Male		Female		value
		n	%	n	%	n	%
Cleaning teeth regularly	Yes	86	64.7	19	14.3	67	50.2	0.00
	No	47	35.3	25	18.8	22	16.5
Cleaning time	Morning	31	24.8	10	8	21	16.8	0.456
	Evening	17	13.6	8	6.4	9	7.2
	Morning and evening	60	48.0	16	12.8	44	35.2
	More than once a day	17	13.6	5	4.0	12	9.6
Cleaning method	Circular	41	34.2	11	9.2	30	25.0	0.689
	Horizontal	34	28.3	9	7.5	25	20.8
	Linear	28	23.3	9	7.5	19	15.8
	Vibration	17	14.2	7	5.8	10	8.3
Cleaning duration	Less than 2 min	61	49.2	22	17.7	39	31.5	0.159
	2-3 min	57	46.0	16	12.9	41	33.1
	More than 5 min	6	4.8	0	0.0	6	4.8
Visiting the dentist for checking every months	Yes	40	30.8	7	5.4	33	25.4	0.025
	No	90	69.2	34	26.2	56	43.1
Visiting the dentist for cleaning every 6 months	Yes	27	20.9	4	3.1	23	17.8	0.060
	No	102	79.1	36	27.9	66	51.2
Cleaning teeth after eating food and sweets	Always	26	19.4	8	6.0	18	13.4	0.052
	Often	22	16.4	3	2.2	19	14.2
	Sometimes	43	32.1	13	9.7	30	22.4
	Rarely	28	20.9	11	8.2	17	12.7
	Never	15	11.2	9	6.7	6	4.5
Using teeth floss	Always	11	8.3	1	0.8	10	7.6	0.056
	Often	8	6.1	0	0.0	8	6.1
	Sometimes	20	15.2	6	4.5	14	10.6
	Rarely	29	22	13	9.8	16	12.1
	Never	64	48.5	24	18.2	40	30.3
Using mouth wash regularly	Always	28	21.4	10	7.6	18	13.7	0.158
	Often	19	14.5	3	2.3	16	12.2
	Sometimes	32	24.4	11	8.4	21	16.0
	Rarely	24	18.3	5	3.8	19	14.5
	Never	28	21.4	13	9.9	15	11.5
Rubbing teeth with salt	Always	7	5.6	1	0.8	6	4.8	0.367
	Often	8	6.3	3	2.4	5	4.0
	Sometimes	23	18.3	7	5.6	16	12.7
	Rarely	16	12.7	3	2.4	13	10.3
	Never	72	57.1	29	23.0	43	34.1
Rubbing teeth with salt and lemon	Always	6	4.9	2	1.6	4	3.3	0.551
	Often	5	4.1	2	1.6	3	2.5
	Sometimes	13	10.7	6	4.9	7	5.7
	Rarely	13	10.7	2	1.6	11	9.0
	Never	85	69.7	31	25.4	54	44.3
Using coal	Always	4	3.4	1	0.8	3	2.5	0.834
	Often	0	0	0	0	0	0
	Sometimes	4	3.4	2	1.7	2	1.7
	Rarely	9	7.6	4	3.4	5	4.2
	Never	102	85.7	35	29.4	67	56.3
Using cloves	Always	10	8.1	2	1.6	8	6.5	0.129
	Often	6	4.8	1	0.8	5	4.0
	Sometimes	16	12.9	3	2.4	13	10.5
	Rarely	19	15.3	4	3.2	15	12.1
	Never	73	58.9	31	25.0	42	33.9
Using cardamom	Always	2	1.7	0	0.0	2	1.7	0.154
	Often	3	2.5	1	0.8	2	1.7
	Sometimes	5	4.2	4	3.4	1	0.8
	Rarely	14	11.9	3	2.5	11	9.3
	Never	94	79.7	33	28.0	61	51.7