Will the role of family influence dental caries among seven-year-old children?

Abstract

The present study analyzed the prevalence of dental caries as well as associations of dental health and family competence among 7-year-old children and their families. Dental caries status was the outcome variable of the 7-year prospective follow-up study. Pre-tested questionnaires were used to gather data individually from the parents at six points in time (at the public maternity health-care clinic during the mother's pregnancy and at childbirth, at the well-baby clinic at 18 months, and at ages 3, 5, and 7 years). Clinical examinations at dental health-care clinics were used to record dental status indicators of the child at ages 3, 5, and 7 years. A child had caries more often when the mother did not regard it as important to teach a healthy lifestyle right from birth; when the mother undervalued consistent action in child-rearing; when the father preferred merely to explain the causes and consequences during child-rearing (giving no examples); when the father had several new carious teeth per year; when the child consumed sweets several times a week; or when the child's toothbrushing was infrequent. The child's daily dental health behaviors and a strong influence of family competence emerged in the final logistic regression analysis. Dental and well-baby clinic staff members need to discuss consistency in child-rearing with the parents and there is a need for modeling adult dental health behaviors at the time of the mother's pregnancy if the child's future preventive dental health is to function properly.

Oral pain and associated factors among adolescents in northern Finland

“…Further, the findings by Myers et al (49) suggest that gender socialization influences young people's pain responses and highlight the importance of a multifactorial developmental approach to studying the impact of gender socialization on the emergence of sex differences in pain responses after puberty. Supportive parenting styles, social supports and controls, good parental examples and other positive family characteristics have been associated with better perceived oral health (31,32,(34)(35)(36)40), while living with single parents or other people than parents is a higher likelihood for oral pain (51). Among adolescents who smoke, those who reported a lack of attentiveness by their parents showed a decreased risk of reporting oral pain.…”

“…However, providing oral health care for children is a complex interaction between the child and his/her parents where the factors related to parental norms, knowledge, attitudes, behaviour and education are associated with the parents' abilities to conduct or promote adequate dental health behaviour in their children (33,34,54,55). It seems that a low educational level, low social class and inconsistent and unsupportive rearing styles often go hand in hand (35,36,50,56). Therefore, it is important to invest in supporting factors associated with parenthood.…”

“…Families' goals and values are pursued through daily routines that affect the family's health (33). Thus, family culture -which comprises health-related habits (diet and hygiene), parents' rearing style, support for and control of the children as well as the parents' own behaviour -has an important effect on the oral health and oral hygiene performance of children and adolescents (34)(35)(36). Similarities between the health-related habits of parents and their children has also been reported in other studies (37)(38)(39)(40).…”

Perfil de salud bucal de niños que concurrieron a Servicios Odontológicos Universitarios en Porto Alegre (Brasil) y Córdoba (Argentina)

“…They can be influenced by the different biological and sociocultural factors of the individuals (1) . Parents' habits and knowledge about oral health have been observed to have an impact on their children's oral health (2,3) . Findings also show that a low socioeconomic status in the household (4,5) and parents' unfavorable oral health habits (1,6) may contribute to the development of dental caries.…”

Socioeconomic, Familiar and Clinical Variables associated to Caries increment in Schoolchildren Participating in a Dental Health Program

“…Among the clinical variables, previous caries experience is considered an important risk predictor for the future development of the disease [12][13][14] and, thus, it should be included in models that assess risk factors for caries in children.…”