Childhood Oral Health : Maternal Knowledge and Practice in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

Background: Dental cares is a prevalent health problem among preschool children, despite the fact that oral health is a main component of preschool children’s well-being. Objectives: To assess the knowledge and practice of mothers in Tabuk city, Saudi Arabia towards their preschool children oral health. Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried at Tabuk city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was carried out in King Khalid military. All mothers having children aged between 3 and 6 years and attended the out-patients` clinics of King Khalid military hospital during the period of Augusr1st-October 31st, 2017 and accept to participate were invited to be included in the study sample. Arabic self-administered structured questionnaire was utilized for collecting data. It includes two main sections. The first section includes socio-demographic information and the second section includes ten knowledge and nine practice questions regarding children`s dental health and hygiene. Results: The study included 389 mothers. More than half of children were males (50.4%). Nearly one-third of mothers (34.3%) were in the age group 30-34 years whereas 10.3% of them aged above 45 years. Almost half of mothers (49.4%) reported all of social media, dentist and mass media as a source of information regarding oral health and hygiene whereas social media and dentist alone were reported by 17.2% and 21.3% of them, respectively. Collectively, sufficient knowledge was observed among 26% of the participants whereas adequate practice regarding oral health was reported by 36.5% of mothers. Dental cares was reported among 115 children (29.6%) whereas dental deformity was reported among 171 children (44%). Conclusion: This study revealed insufficient knowledge and inadequate practice of mothers regarding their children oral health and hygiene. Some factors were identified affecting both child`s oral health knowledge and practice.