GADGET'S MASTER OVER THE ROMP (PARENTAL TENETS ON USAGE OF GADGETS BY CHILDREN AND ITS INFLUENCE ON ACTIVITY RELATED TRAUMA)

Abstract

A survey to evaluate knowledge and perception of parents over child's gadget usage and its inuence over dental trauma.A paper-.ed closed-ended questionnaire was circulated among 107 parents of 5-11-year-old children. the questionnaire was made available to those parents who had reported to the dept of pedodontics, ragas dental college, Chennai with acceptance to participate in the study with subsequent fulllment of inclusion criteria. the questions were majorly involving the inuence of gadgets on dental trauma, screen time, percentage of different types of gadget exposure, need for educational and motivational programs on the benets of minimal gadget usage. The results of the 25 item questionnaire showed that the inuence of gadgets was said to be peaking more and it is considered to be a highly inuential factor on trauma whose incidence reduced as the time of usage and the devices frequently used per day was recorded in this survey (52.3 % of children used gadgets 3 – 4 hours daily and 48.5 % children use smartphones).The survey concluded that the usage of gadgets played an important role in the incidence of traumatic injuries. In contrast, even though it decreased the rate of trauma every pediatric dentist should take into consideration that children are living in a gadget-driven environment that could have a deleterious effect on a healthy body and mind.