Parents′ perceptions of factors influencing the oral health of their preschool children in Vadodara city, Gujarat: A descriptive study

Abstract

Objectives: To assess parents′ perceptions about the factors influencing the oral health of preschool children. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out among the parents of the preschool children in Vadodara City, India. A list of preschools was obtained from the Social Science Department of the MS University, Vadodara, India. The study included 828 parents, out of whom 597 responded, with the response rate of 72.10%. Twenty-seven questionnaires were incompletely filled and were excluded from the analysis. The remaining 570 forms were analyzed for the results. Results: The study included 828 parents, with a response rate of 72.10%. A majority of the parents were aware of the importance of primary teeth (85.33%), need for treating decayed primary teeth (100%), harmful effects of bottle feeding at night (99.64%), appropriate oral hygiene aid (84,56%), appropriate size of a toothbrush for a child (99.12%), and supervision and guidance of a parent, while cleaning the child′s teeth (96.49%) . The parents′ understanding, however, was found to be poor with respect to certain factors. Very few of the parents had adequate knowledge about the appropriate time to start cleaning, correct position of the parent during supervised brushing, proper quantity of toothpaste to be used, and proper time for the first dental visit of the child; 29.12% felt that the child′s teeth should be cleaned when the first tooth erupts. A majority of parents identified the importance of fluoridated toothpaste (62.10%) and preferred to visit the dentist only when there was pain (58.07%). Conclusions: Parents′ knowledge with respect to the first dental visit of a child, correct time to start cleaning the child′s teeth, quantity of toothpaste to be used, position of parent during supervised brushing, the best time to give sugary drinks and snacks to the child, cariogenic effects of foods like cakes and pastries, and so on, needs to be improved.

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

“…A high proportion of the subjects reported that children's bad oral health could affect the general health which implies that their children's oral health should be in a good status, however, this wasn't the case since dmft/DMFT was 4.64/1.08. Similar to previous studies (16, 18–20) parents reported that pain was the main reason for visiting the dental office instead of regular check-up.…”

“…A high percentage of children in the sample were reported to brush their teeth at least once to twice daily, similar results were found in other studies (14–16), and the brushing frequency was more when the parents were university educated, similar to that reported by Rajab (17). More than half of the total sample of parents guided and supervised their children while brushing their teeth (Table 2) and this was similar to other's findings (18). The use of additional measures was low in our sample, similar to other studies (16, 19), and this could be attributed to the lack of knowledge of benefits of these auxiliary methods (15, 16, 19, 20).…”

Assessment of Knowledge Regarding Oral Hygiene among Parents of Pre-School Children Attending Pediatric Out Patient Department in Dhulikhel Hospital

“…In similar study carried out by Chhabra et al among 620 parents of pre-school children in India majority were mother (81.3%), 20 but in the study carried out by Thakare et al in Gujarat, India majority (67.5%) were father. 21 This shows that on some society father are more active on taking their child on hospital, while on others mother. Tooth brushing habits, use of fluoridated toothpaste, frequency and duration of tooth-brushing, are the most important factors on oral self-care behaviors.…”

Prevalence of parents willingness to take up fluoride treatment for their children, the gender differences and common age of acceptance - A retrospective study

“…Due to this risk of toxicity, luoride gel treatment is generally not recommended to children below 6years of age. (Ismail and Hasson, 2008;Thakare et al, 2012) Parental knowledge with respect to the irst dental visit of their child, the correct time to start cleaning the child's teeth, a quantity of toothpaste used, cariogenic effects of dietary food, the requisite for luoride treatment etc., needs to be improved (Clark, 1993;Sköld-Larss et al, 1999).…”