Assessment of self-perceived and normative dental needs among teaching faculty of Visveswarapura Group of Institutions: A cross-sectional study

Introduction: The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to assess and compare self-perceived and normative dental needs among teaching faculty of Visveswarapura Group of Institutions, Bangalore, India. Materials and Methods: The study population included 217 teaching faculty from four Visveswarapura Group of Institutions namely Arts and Commerce, Law, Science College and Engineering College. The study population was subjected to a self-administered closed-ended questionnaire inquiring about their socioeconomic status, Oral health status and treatment needs. Clinical examinations, employing WHO dentition status and community periodontal index were performed to determine normative status and needs. Perceived and normative assessments were compared for sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values using Kappa statistics. Results: The degree of agreement (κ values) and sensitivity was seen in filled teeth (0.839, 80%), missing teeth (0.696, 85.2%), and mobile teeth (0.57, 55.6%). However, the disagreement was seen with all other questions with average κ = 0.20. Regarding overall proportions, a large discrepancy was found between self-perceived and normative needs for both dental and periodontal health status. Conclusion: Self-assessment questionnaires were of low value in evaluating oral health status and treatment needs compared with clinical examination