Evaluation of parents' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding self-medication for their children’s dental problems during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-sectional survey

Abstract

Background Self-medication refers to taking medicine without consultation with a doctor or dentist, and it is an important health issue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. There are no data about parents’ SM practices for their children’s dental problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aims to evaluate parents’ knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding self-medication for their children’s dental problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in Northern Turkey. Methods A cross-sectional survey was carried out in the pediatric dental clinic at Ondokuz Mayis University, Faculty of Dentistry, Department of Pediatric Dentistry, immediately after the COVID-19 lockdown ended. A total of 389 parents who agreed to participate in the study completed the questionnaire from July 1 to October 1. A questionnaire with 18 items was designed to collect information on the parents’ knowledge and attitudes regarding when, why, and how to use drugs and on their practices on medicating their children. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics (chi-square test). Results The majority of parents (n = 273; 70.2%) practiced self-medication for their children's dental problems. Self-medication with a previously prescribed medications was usually preferred by parents (n = 179; 62.2%). Analgesics (98%) were the most commonly used medicines by parents in their self-medication for their children's dental problems. Conclusion Prevalence of self-medication practices for children's dental problems is high in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, new healthcare services, such as teledentistry, may be useful to overcome problems related to the self-medication of children during times when the ability to reach healthcare providers is limited, such as during pandemics.

Attitude of parents towards oral health and dental treatment of their children during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In the present study, 69% of the questionnaires were filled out by mothers, which reflects the fact that mothers mainly address the treatment needs of their children. This finding was similar to gender distribution of the parents who participated in a similar study [12]. According to the present results, 70% of the current dental visits were due to the consequences of untreated previous carious lesions.…”

“…In the present study, only 9% of the parents reported benefitting from remote dental consultations. Sen Tunc et al [12] reported selfmedication by 70% of the parents to alleviate dental pain in their children during the COVID-19 pandemic. In a retrospective study on online pediatric dental consultations in Wuhan, China, 40% of the consultations were about emergency conditions; 98% of which were related to toothache, swelling, or dental trauma [5].…”

Covid-19 Pandemic and Its Effects on Dentistry: A Retrospective Study

“…It is inevitable that patient flows are not as high as they used to have economic effects. Among these effects, the decrease in working hours with the transition to flexible working hours can be counted as the dismissal of salaried dentists and other clinical staff (30,31). These situations can lead to unpredictable longterm results such as unemployment.…”

Practical Applicability of Teledentistry in Pediatric Patients Amidst Pandemic : A Narrative Review

“…Majority of the respondents were able to express themselves satisfactorily and clearly (19). A recent study from Google interest trends on self-medication during the COVID-19 pandemic depicted an increase in the number of searches regarding self-medication, which indicates the need to reach out to the population in different ways, one of which can be through teledentistry, as reported by Sen Tunc et al (20).…”