Objectives: The aim of this survey was to assess aspects of oral health knowledge, attitudes and behavior among clinical dental students in Tunisia and to compare it with preclinical students.

Materials and methods: The English language version of the HU-DBI was distributed to preclinical and clinical students from different levels. Dichotomized (agree/disagree) responses to 20 HU-DBI items were provided in this study, with a maximum possible score of 12. A quantitative estimate of oral health knowledge, attitudes and behaviors was provided by the total of appropriate answers given to every statement by each group. Data were collected and statistically analyzed with the significance level set at P ≤ 0.05 within all tests.

Results: The overall median score of answers favoring good oral hygiene was marginally higher in clinical 7 than preclinical students 5.5 and showed statistical signi icance (p=0.000). Similarly, the analysis of each item individually displayed statistically signi icant differences between preclinical and clinical participants in 9 items of the survey.

Conclusion: This study showed no effective differences in oral hygiene behavior between preclinical and clinical students in Tunisia. This reveals a weak effect of dental education on improving students’ oral health habits in Tunisia and might demand the introduction of more courses emphasizing the importance of correct oral health behavior among health care providers.

Keywords: Oral health, Dental students, Tunisia, Questionnaire, HU-DBI