motivating and inhibiting factors to oral-dental health behavior in adolescents: a cross-sectional study

background oral-dental diseases, especially tooth decay, are among the most common diseases in the world which usually begin in adolescence. oral health during this period of life has a huge impact on the reduction of dental problems. this study aimed to determine motivating and inhibiting factors to oral-dental health behavior in adolescents. materials and methods this cross-sectional which had a descriptive and analytical design was conducted on 10-12th grade students in kashan city, iran. using multi-stage sampling method and based on sampling size formula, a total of 290 of the students were randomly selected from the schools and were enrolled into the study. then they received a research-made questionnaire containing questions about the knowledge and motivating and inhibiting factors to oral-dental health behavior. the collected data were analyzed using spss v.20 by independent t-test, anova, and pearson correlation coefficient. results of all, 62.8% of students brushed their teeth at least once a day. moreover, 11.7% used dental floss once a day and 6.6% visited a dentist every six months. oral-dental health behavior had a significant relationship with gender (p<0.05). so that, of all 48.1 percent of boys and, 51.9 percent of girls had oral-dental health behavior score 50 and higher. in addition, there was a significantly negative relationship between inhibiting factors and oral-dental health behavior (p=0.001, r=-0.262). however, no significant relationship was observed between motivating factors and oral-dental health behavior (p>0.05). conclusion when designing educational plans and interventions for improving oral-dental health behavior in students, it is necessary to adopt measures to enhance motivating factors and eliminate inhibiting factors.