Mother′s knowledge about pre-school child′s oral health

Abstract

Children under the age of 5 years generally spend most of their time with their parents and guardians, especially mothers, even when they attend pre-schools or nurseries. It has been found that young children's oral health maintenance and outcomes are influenced by their parent's knowledge and beliefs. This study was done to assess the mother's knowledge about the oral health of their pre-school children in Moradabad, India. Mothers of children aged 1-4 years, attending the hospital for vaccination or regular checkups in the pediatric division of government hospitals, were invited to participate in the study. A 20-item questionnaire covering socio-demographic characteristics, dietary practices, oral hygiene practices and importance of deciduous teeth, was distributed to their mothers, during their visit to the hospital. Responses of the mothers were recorded on a Likert Scale. The sample comprised 406 mothers, with the mean age of children being 3.8 years. Three hundred (73.8%) mothers had a good knowledge about diet and dietary practices, while only 110 (27.1%) and 103 (25.4%) mothers were found to have a good knowledge about the importance of oral hygiene practices and importance of deciduous teeth, respectively. Mothers with higher educational qualification and information gained through dentist had a better knowledge about child's oral health. Oral hygiene habits and dietary habits are established during pre-school days and the parents, especially mothers, function as role models for their children.

Importance of Deciduous Teeth: Maternal Perceptions and Early Childhood Caries

“…Despite of that, children's mothers without CPI showed to have a greater knowledge than children's mothers with CPI. Similar result was found in a study in which the majority of mothers (73.9%) showed a good knowledge of the diet of their children [9].…”

“…This fact can be explained by the knowledge of parents about the determinants of dental caries not being sufficient stimulus for the adoption of care with the children's oral health, reinforcing the idea that there is not necessarily a causal relationship between information and action [18]. Contrary to the findings of the present study, other authors found that the majority of the population studied presented a partial knowledge about care with oral hygiene [9] and classified as a limited knowledge regarding the habits of oral hygiene of parents evaluated, especially in relation to the form of realization of brushing and importance of consultation for the prevention [21].…”

“…The methodology used in this research was similar to that used in previous studies [9,10,11,19], where the data were gathered by means of questionnaires in the form of an interview.…”

“…A study evaluating the knowledge of children's mothers aged one to four years old on the oral health of their children showed that 73.9% of mothers had a good knowledge about diet, while only 25.4% and 27.1% had a good knowledge about oral hygiene and the importance of deciduous teeth, respectively [9]. The present study observed that the population studied had satisfactory knowledge on oral health, based on responses obtained in the survey, despite of not having been carried out any kind of specific evaluation for this purpose.…”

“…And it has been demonstrated that the maintenance and the consequences on the children's oral health are influenced by the parents' beliefs and knowledge [9]. The oral health of Brazilian children is still worrying and the indices of early loss of deciduous teeth are high [10][11][12][13].…”