To estimate the oral health behaviors of local residents aged 35-44 and to recommend some policies for oral health care in Shenzhen.

A multi-stage random sampling was applied to obtain a representative sample consisted of 1230 people aged 35-44. The questionnaire was designed according to 'The guideline for the 3rd National Oral Health Survey’, regarding oral health practice, oral health services and knowledge about oral health, and 1224 effective questionaires were finally collected.

In the tested people, 91.7% of people held brushing their teeth per day; 55.6% of people brushed their teeth twice or more per day; 72.1% used fluoride toothpaste; dental floss was rarely used. Only 15.9% people went to department of stomatology of hospital last year, and 90% patient were due to acute and chronic toothache or other discomforts. People with periodic oral examination was rarely, and television/broadcast were still the primary sources of the oral health knowledge.

The key points of oral preventive care were to improve the people′s preventive oral health consciousness, change oral behaviors and intensify oral health education contents in Shenzhen in future.