Background : Good health is a marker of good economic status of a nation. Personal hygiene should be maintained first for obtaining great accuracy in work, low suffering from diseases and to reduce possibility of diseases. Objective : This study was undertaken to assess practice of personal hygiene among rural women of a selected community in Bangladesh. Materials & Methods : A descriptive type of cross sectional study was conducted during March-June 2012. 150 women of various ages selected from Garibpur and Tangurpur villages of Jessore District to assess two basic components of personal hygiene, hand washing and safe drinking water. Non probability convenient sampling technique was followed and data were collected by face to face interview using pre tested, self administered, semi structured questionnaire. Results : The mean age of the respondents was 33 years. Regarding educational qualification, 87.33% were educated in different levels and 12.67% were illiterate. Occupational status revealed majority (74.67%) of them were housewives. Regarding economic condition, most (60%) of the respondents had family income <10,000 Taka. In this study, majority (87.34%) had practiced hand washing before eating. Among them on taking different types of food (86.26%) practiced hand washing before taking meals only 13.74% before taking breakfast and none of the respondents washed hands before taking any dry food. Majority (95.34%) practiced hand washing after defecation, among them (82%) used soap, 16% used ash and 2% used soil after defecation. In this study, majority (90.67%) used tube well which was not marked red, 6% used pond and 3.33% used river as their source of drinking water. Conclusion : Good practice of personal hygiene and use of safe drinking water has significant importance to lead a healthy life, the villagers of Bangladesh should be well motivated regarding this aspect by regular health education programmes.

Teeth loss, especially first permanent molar teeth loss is the ultimate barometer of failure or success in dentistry and dental health programs. A cross-sectional study was conducted among 210 patients attending in outpatient department of selected dental hospitals in Dhaka city to find out the loss of first permanent molar teeth among them. Regarding age (34.8%) of the respondents were below 25 years followed by 25.5% between 25 – 35 years (mean age 33.16 ± 14.10 years). In case of educational status (31%) completed primary education followed by 16.2% were graduates and 33.3% were illiterates. Majority (59.5%) of the respondents had monthly family income below 5000 BDT (mean income 6802.39 ± 6630. 39 BDT). Among the respondents, 33.8% knew brushing technique and 79.5% of them brushed once in a day. Majority (68.5%) of them used tooth paste for brushing and tooth brush was used by 67.1% of the respondents. In case of first permanent molar tooth missing, 50% missed lower left, 19.6% lower right, 17.4% upper left and 13%  upper right. Among the respondents, 86% teeth loss was due to caries followed by periodontal disease (12.4%) and orthodontic reason (5.2%). Among the respondents who lost tooth, 55.7% were below 15 years followed by 15 - 30 years (34.3%) and above 30 years (10%). Regarding oral hygiene status, 19% had satisfactory and 81% had unsatisfactory oral hygiene. So it can be concluded that loss of permanent first molars can be avoided if good preventive measures are used before these teeth erupt and are continued after they have erupted in addition to maintaining proper oral hygiene. Further large scale study regarding this topic is recommended.Bangladesh Journal of Dental Research and Education Vol.5(2) 2015: 40-43