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Assessment of awareness, experience, and attitude of Saudi women about oral health changes during the menstruation: A cross-sectional study

Background: One of the systemic conditions that lead to several changes in the oral cavity is hormonal changes which occur during puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, or menopause, so the awareness of women about these oral changes during the menstruation is important to motivate them toward maintaining good oral hygiene to prevent or reduce oral health changes during menstruation and to seek treatment if needed and not ignore them. Aims: This study aims to assess awareness, experience, and attitude of Saudi healthy menstruating women about oral health changes during menstruation. Setting and Design: This study was performed by distributing a questionnaire in the Arabic language to 401 healthy menstruating females between 18 and 45 years of age among the general population of Saudi Arabia. Methodology: A self-administered closed-end questionnaire was designed comprising 21 questions to assess the awareness, experience, and attitude of females about oral health changes during menstruation. Statistical Analysis Used: The frequency analysis and percentages for all answers were calculated. In addition, pairs of Chi-square analyses were conducted between the dependent and independent variables. Results: This study's results showed that halitosis was the oral change that the participants experienced most during their menstruation followed by a mouth burning sensation (36.4%), gingival bleeding (33.9%), alteration in taste sensation (31.2%), gingival swelling (30.2%), formation of oral ulcers (23.25), and increased tooth mobility (18.7%). 53.11% of the participants in this study were aware of the relationship between menstruation and oral health changes and 48.87% of them agreed that maintaining good oral hygiene can reduce these oral changes during menstruation. Conclusion: More than half of the participants in this study were aware of the relationship between menstruation and oral health changes and approximately half of them agreed that maintaining good oral hygiene can reduce these oral changes during menstruation.