Mothers’ knowledge and self-reported performance regarding management of traumatic dental injuries: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background Dental trauma is common among children. It has negative effects on a child’s quality of life. Parental knowledge, especially among mothers is an important factor for the long-term success of this emergency. This study aimed to investigate mothers' knowledge and self-reported performance, especially regarding the management of traumatic dental injuries. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 277 mothers of children (8–12 years) attending to pediatrics department of Alborz dental school were studied by convenience sampling. The independent variables were the child's gender, parents’ education and employment status, economic status, and inhabitation status. The dependent variable was the mothers’ knowledge and self-reported performance about the management of traumatic dental injuries. The data were collected using a valid and reliable questionnaire including four case scenarios of traumatic dental injury (case design) and analyzed by Linear multiple regression. Results The mean score of mothers’ knowledge about the management of traumatic dental injuries was 3.34 ± 1.58. The least obtained score in the section of knowledge was 0, and most of them were 7 (from a total score of 11). The mean score of mothers’ performance was 3.38 ± 1.2 (from a total score of 7). Results demonstrated that mothers' employment status and education influence their knowledge, while there is no relationship between mothers’ self-reported performance and the contextual variables (P < 0.05). Conclusions This finding demonstrated mothers have insufficient knowledge and performance about dental trauma management. The authors recommend giving effective academic intervention on knowledge and performance of dental trauma management at the community level, especially for parents.