The Effects of Oral Health Belief on Use of Dental Service of Students of Health and Medical Department of Universities

This study was conducted on 350 students of health and medical department of universities in Busan from June 3, 2013 to June 21, 2013, and a total of 350 questionnaires were researched. Among them 337 responses were used after 13 unfaithful responses were excluded. The effects of oral health belief on use of dental service of students of health and medical department of universities were examined and analyzed to provide basic data which can be used to expand understanding about oral health belief, to promote changes in behaviors regarding oral health and to improve oral health of the public. Collected data was analyzed through SPSS (Statistical Packages for Social Science 15.0. SPSS Inc. USA). For verification of differences of oral health belief depending on general matters and oral health behavior, t-test and ANOVA analysis were conducted, and for examination of the effects of oral health belief on use of medical service, logistic regression and regression analysis were conducted. The study results suggest that those who had higher sensitivity among oral health belief variables had higher probability of needing dental treatment and seeing the dentist immediately. And those who showed higher sensitivity and importance had higher frequency of seeing the dentist for six months. Future studies need to be conducted on the methods to change oral health belief for sustainable an