Parental Knowledge and Acceptance of Different Treatment Options for Primary Teeth Provided by Dental Practitioners

Abstract

Background: Parents have an influence on dental treatment options for young children regarding type of care provided. The aim of this study was to assess parents' knowledge and acceptance of different treatment options for primary teeth provided by dental practitioners for their children.Materials and Methods: In this descriptive, cross-sectional study, caregiver/child dyads (n = 476) were recruited from patients at Pediatric Dental Clinics, Jordan University of Science and Technology. The data collection questionnaire to parents included: 1-demographic data 2-parental knowledge and practices regarding child's oral hygiene, caries and caries prevention 3-parental knowledge and acceptance of different treatment options for primary teeth including two given clinical scenarios (ICDAS-5 molar requiring intra-coronal restoration, ICDAS-6 molar requiring pulp therapy and stainless steel crown) with pictures before and after treatment. Afterwards, the child underwent a dental examination to record dmft/DMFT, gingival and plaque indices. Data was analyzed using SPSS, significance was set at P ≤ 0.05.Results: Children's ages were 2–12 years (mean/SD 6.97 ± 2.5); with 255/53.6% males, 221/46.4% females. There were (166) children 2–5 years in primary dentition; (108/166) 65% had ECC, and (n = 62/166) 37.4% had S-ECC, and (310) 6–12 years in mixed dentition; (278/310) 89.7% had caries. Scaling and extraction were the highest known and accepted treatments for primary teeth by parents (35.5 and 30.1%, respectively), while nitrous oxide/oxygen sedation was the least (3.6%). Parental educational level was significant for composite restorations, fluoride gel application and pulp therapy (P = 0.03, 0.02, and 0.03, respectively) and age above 40 for amalgam restorations (P = 0.04). In both scenarios, most parents preferred to leave any care decision in hands of the dentists with no effect of educational level (P > 0.05). There were 81.5% parents who reported that their children's dental status was good, however, 78.4%/42.8% children had an average dmft/DMFT score 5.34/2.32 and mean PI/GI scores 0.88 ± 0.20/0.17 ± 0.23.Conclusion: Parental knowledge and acceptance about dental treatment options for primary dentition was generally low. Parental education and age had an impact on parental knowledge and practices regarding child's oral hygiene, caries and caries prevention, and some treatment options. There was an overrated parental opinion of their child's teeth status despite the high dmft/DMFT and PI.

Is It Mum or the Dad? Parental Factors That Influence the Use and Acceptance of Fluoride Varnish among Parents in Eastern Saudi Arabia

“…Socioeconomic and educational levels significantly affected the knowledge about fluoride varnish in the current study. Parents with higher educational degrees and socioeconomic status showed more knowledge about FV, this finding was supported by similar studies done previously [ 23 , 24 , 34 , 35 ]. Lower educational and socioeconomic levels were found to be a predictor of poor oral health knowledge and poor oral hygiene habits [ 31 , 36 ].…”

“…More than half of the parents in the current study had no previous knowledge about fluoride varnish. The poor level of knowledge observed in the current study about fluoride varnish is in line with multiple studies conducted elsewhere [ 23 , 28 – 30 ]. Gender had a significant influence on knowledge in the current study, mothers were more knowledgeable about fluoride varnish compared to fathers.…”

“…Data was collected using a validated self-administered questionnaire. Te questionnaire was adopted and modifed based on the previous literature [23][24][25][26]. Te questionnaire consisted of four parts: demographics, knowledge, previous experience, and FV acceptance, and all were close-ended questions.…”

Dental Caries Prevalence among 3 - 14 Year Old School Children of Chitwan

“…22 The decline in the caries rate from middle childhood age to late childhood age may be due to the increased awareness of oral hygiene in the higher age group. This is supported by the finding of Chu CH et al 27 Our study shows that the major proportion of children had untreated caries with a very low proportion of the children having filled teeth, similar to a recent study by Tarik Shounia et al 17 This may be due to the overrated opinion of the parents regarding the oral health status of their children, 28 high costs of dental treatment 29 and the lack of awareness regarding oral health in the parents and children. 30 The higher proportion of females with untreated caries seen in the study may be due to the neglect to female children compared to male children by their parents.…”

Visionaries or Dreamers? Story of Parent’s Perception, Attitude and Awareness about Children’s Oral Health

“…Parents particularly those with low socioeconomic background often neglect children's dental management due to a notion that primary teeth are temporary teeth and they will be replaced by a new set of dentition [3]. Therefore, interventions focusing on parental dental health knowledge may be favorable for preventing oral health issues in children [5].…”