1. Teeth are like our lifelong partner as we live 100 years. However, South Korean people in their 50s most regret about their lack of teeth care in terms of their health. Thus, it was found that a lot of people do not pay proper attention to their teeth care. The starting point of teeth care is proper toothbrushing. Even, you will have a higher probability of getting heart attack if you do brush your teeth improperly. It is essential to brush your teeth properly not only for your teeth care but also your overall health. Then, what is the proper way of brushing teeth? Also, how much do we know about it? Thus, we selected the three criteria for several toothbrushing habits, which could be researched and also which could influence teeth. First, we decided to investigate on when to brush teeth, how many times to clean mouth and where to place toothpaste by selecting 3 criteria. Moreover, we decided to examine how properly “the toothbrushing education” was being implemented in South Korea and whether it needed any improvement. Theme selection process As a result of the survey, people brush their teeth 3.7 times a day on average (Graph 1) and they clean their mouth with water after brushing their teeth 4.6 times a day (Graph 2). It was found that people often used the quantity of toothpaste that was equivalent to more than half of toothbrush bristle that was the recommended amount through the preliminary verbal survey even though this finding was not included in the survey result because it was not officially surveyed. Also, there were only a small number of people who were using other oral care products than toothbrush, such as gargle, dental floss, interdental brushes, etc. Although people use their teeth for their entire life, they do not know about the proper toothbrushing habit. Furthermore, even those who know it properly do not conduct it properly. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct periodical training and diagnosis as to the proper toothbrushing method and the other oral care methods than toothbrushing since kindergarten and even after entering secondary school. Moreover, it would be possible to make people conduct the proper toothbrushing method by means of campaign, booklets or guidance stickers on the proper toothbrushing method (that can be placed in public places or house washrooms) to inform them about their inadequate toothbrushing method. 1) Science Donga, March Vol. 2011, “Chemical principle hidden in medical products” – It is imperative to clean mouth more than 10 times due to surfactants of toothpaste 2) http:// blog.daum.net/scw345/21, Live dentistry – Toothpaste can perform its role on the friction surface between toothbrush bristle and teeth only if pressing toothpaste inside toothbrush bristle 3) lifechanging.tistory.com/74 – Brushing your teeth can remove foods in your mouth and protect your teeth. 4) Google. co.kr – Images 1) Survey period - January 26 to 30 (Record) February 2 (Survey questionnaire), 6 days in total 2) Survey subject - 148 first-year students of Cheongwon High School 3) Survey method – ① Asking the students to record on the record sheet attached to the class cabinet for 5 days ② Investigating the tooth- brushing habit and the awareness level through questionnaire after collecting the record sheet Survey method Survey result Conclusion/solutions Sources All of the respondents were asked to record about when to brush their teeth using the questionnaire. Dentists recommended to brush teeth after meal and before sleep. In this regard, the ratio of the students who brushed their teeth after meal was high. However, only a small number of the students brushed their teeth before sleeping. It seems that a majority of people do not brush their teeth before sleeping because they do not know about it. For the other responses, they brush teeth when they do not feel fresh inside their mouth and when they eat snack. The students were asked to count and record the number of times of cleaning their mouth (the number of times of spitting out gargling water in the given range. As a result of the survey, those people who washed 4 to 6 times accounted for the largest proportion. However, those people who washed more than 10 times (the proper way) accounted for only about 10 percent. The students were given a toothbrush picture on the questionnaire and they were asked to display where they would place toothpaste and give brief explanation. More than 90 percent answered that they would place toothpaste above toothbrush bristles. Those people who would place toothpaste between toothbrush bristles (the proper method) accounted for only 5.7 percent. The other responses include placing toothpaste on the sides of toothbrush. The students were asked to draw a picture and write an explanation as shown in 3-1 in order to examine the difference between awareness and implementation. The number of students knowing that they should place toothpaste between toothbrush bristles increased to about 30 percent. Still, it was too low compared to the number of students having answered that they would place toothpaste above toothbrush bristles. It seems that it was because they found it inconvenient to place toothpaste between toothbrush bristles. Also, it was possible to learn that significant improvement should be made to make people conduct the proper way of placing toothpaste. I have received it. 34.1% I have not received it. 65.9% Dentistry 34.1% School 52.2% Health diagnosis 9.1% Others 4.6% Only those 42 respondents who had answered that they have received training on toothbrushing (left) responded in the second question (right). More than half of the people have not received any training on tooth health care. For those who have received it, half thereof have received the training on tooth health care at school, whereas approximately 30 percent thereof have received it at dentistry. The others have received the training from such place as Internet. To find the difference between awareness and implementation, we investigated how many times we should wash our mouth for healthy teeth. In fact, those students believing that they should wash their mouth more than 10 times accounted for the largest proportion. This was opposite to the result of Question 2-1 that investigated the actual number of washing their mouth. About 45 percent of the people did not conduct the proper way of washing their mouth compared to the degree of their awareness thereof.