Parents' knowledge, attitude and practices toward oral health of their children with primary dentition: A cross sectional study

Abstract

ObjectiveThis cross-sectional study aims to assess parents' knowledge, attitude, and practices toward the oral health of their children with primary dentition.Patients and methodsThe study was performed in the Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health Department, Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University. Data were obtained through 301 questionnaires translated from English to Arabic, for the assessment of the parents' knowledge, attitude, and practices scores and via clinical examination of the children for the assessment of caries prevalence by calculation of their dmf scores.ResultsThe majority of parents (90%) had adequate knowledge scores with a significantly strong negative correlation to dmf scores of their children. For attitude score, 100% of parents reported adequate attitude score, with insignificant weak negative correlation to dmf scores of their children. Finally, the practice score was adequate in only 44.52% of parents, with a significantly strong negative correlation to dmf scores of the children.ConclusionsThe majority of parents had adequate knowledge and attitude, although having inadequate practice. The mean dmf score of the children was significantly affected by parents' knowledge, but weakly affected by their beliefs and attitudes. The poor practice of parents revealed in the present study had a strong negative influence on their children's caries prevalence.