Results.
A total of 500 students completed the questionnaire, including 297
(59.4%) women and 203 men (40.6%). The characteristics of the
participants are shown in Table 1. As expected, the students
self-reported that they suffered from increased stress and emotional
distress. An increase in weight was observed in 48.6% of the subjects.
Female students reported more “eating for coping” than male students
did (68% vs. 43.8%; p<0.001).
General hygiene habits were maintained by students, with only a small
group that reported a reduction in personal and dental hygiene (8% and
4% of the total population, respectively). (table 2).
We then compared students from the dentistry and dental hygiene courses
to those from other medical courses (control group). A reduction in the
frequency of use of floss or interdental brush during quarantine was
reported in the control group (7.5% versus 21% of the total students
in each group; p<0.01)
To the question “Which component is included in your toothpaste?”,
there was a difference between study population and control students; a
significant greater number of students from the control groups answered
“don’t know” or “don’t care” (respectively: 7.5% versus 75.6%;
p<0.001 and 1% versus 14.3%; p<0.001).
To the question “what type of mouthwash do you usually use?”, a great
number of students from the control group answered “none” (36.6%
compared to the dentistry and dental hygiene students, where only 0.5%
reported not using a mouthwash; p<0.01).
Interestingly, a large number of students from the dentistry and dental
hygiene courses reported a change in the quality of mouthwash with an
increase in the use of chlorhexidine mouthwash during quarantine (+
15%).
We then correlated self-perception of increase in stress among students
because of COVID-19 with all variables related to general and dental
hygiene, and found a small correlation between COVID-19 stress
perception and reduced hygiene.