Abstract
The aim of this study was to assess Saudi mothers’ knowledge and attitude towards primary teeth health and dental caries and the impact of level of education on their knowledge and attitude. Four hundred, self-reported questionnaires were distributed to mothers of children aged 1 to 6 years. They contained questions expressing knowledge and attitudes towards the health of primary teeth and the effect of educational level on knowledge and attitude of oral health. Data were processed and analysed by means of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) using Chi-square test. The significance was taken for P-value ≤ 0.05. Mothers had good knowledge about dietary practices and oral hygiene practices. While more than half of them do not know when to start child mouth cleaning, first visit to dentist and transmissibility of caries. Half of the respondents do not know the contribution of frequent sweet consumption to dental caries. Our study showed a strong correlation between level of education and oral health knowledge (P-value = 0.00) whereas effect of knowledge on mothers’ attitude was insignificant (P-value ≤ 0.6). Mothers showed some degree of knowledge about certain aspects of primary teeth health and caries, while poor knowledge is shown in other aspects. We recommended broadening prevention concept. Key words: Early childhood caries (ECC), oral health knowledge, oral health attitude.
Highlights
Caries prevalence among Saudi Arabian children and adolescent in Jazan Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is high (Al-Malik and Rehbini, 2006)
Children under the age of 5 years spend most of their time with mothers, so their oral hygiene and dietary habits are influenced by their care takers and level of education (Jain et al, 2014)
An overwhelming majority of mothers (96.2%) believed that sweets and soft drinks can lead to caries, this reflect excellent knowledge of sweet risk factor in dental caries, but at the same time, only 52.3% of the respondents relate this risk factor to the frequent sweets intake more than the quantity taken
Summary
Caries prevalence among Saudi Arabian children and adolescent in Jazan Region, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is high (Al-Malik and Rehbini, 2006). Oral health knowledge is an essential pre-requisite for health related behaviour (Ashley, 1996). Children under the age of 5 years spend most of their time with mothers, so their oral hygiene and dietary habits are influenced by their care takers and level of education (Jain et al, 2014). In addition to the level of education, behavioural, cultural and social factors influence caries risk (Acs et al, 1992). These include sleeping with a bottle and frequent consumption of sugarcontaining snacks or drinks (Hallett and O'Rourke, 2006). Dental caries with its consequences including pain, and diminished quality of life is a common health problem
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