Americans place a high value on the importance of oral health, yet there is room for improvement when it comes to practicing proper oral hygiene at home, according to a nationwide survey by Philips Sonicare.
The findings suggest that consumers have good intentions toward taking care of their oral health but need more education and motivation to follow through with standards of care.
When meeting someone new, a person's smile was cited as the leading characteristic that attracts positive attention (47%). Aspects of oral hygiene such as bad breath (89%) and yellow teeth (79%) took the lead for first-date turnoffs, outranking other physical traits such as acne (52%) and baldness (21%), the survey found.
Some 97% of respondents agreed that oral hygiene is as important as or more important than physical health when it comes to leading a healthy lifestyle, and the overwhelming majority claim that they follow dental professional guidelines about brushing twice a day (90%). However, less than half brush their teeth for the recommended two minutes, which may help to explain why 80% of Americans suffer from some form of periodontal disease, according to the National Institutes of Health.
The highest level of oral care compliance was found in power toothbrush users who showed strong preference for their brush. Some 75% of power users said that they really like or love their brush (compared to 45% of manual users), citing better perceived plaque removal, freshness of their breath, and reduced number of cavities, the survey said.
The survey, "Oral Care Love Affair: Americans Open up About Their Oral Health," was conducted via telephone during October 2010 by Opinion Research among a nationally representative sample of 1,008 Americans ages 18 years and older, Philips noted.
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