ORIGINAL ARTICLE |
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Year : 2020 | Volume
: 33
| Issue : 1 | Page : 11-17 |
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Mothers' knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding their primary school children's oral hygiene
Aml A Salama1, Eslam M Konsowa2, Safa H Alkalash1
1 Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Menoufia University, Menoufia, Egypt 2 Ministry of Health, Menoufia Health Administration, Menoufia, Egypt
Correspondence Address:
Safa H Alkalash Shebeen El-Kom, Menoufia Egypt
Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None | Check |
DOI: 10.4103/mmj.mmj_300_19
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Background
Evaluation of parental knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding dental hygiene is an important tool which projects parent's outlook toward oral health of their children. Proper dental hygiene prevents dental caries and allows early detection for any abnormality in earlier stages.
Objective
The aim was to assess knowledge, attitude, and practice of mothers regarding oral health and its effect on their children's dental health status.
Patients and methods
This is a cross-sectional study of a random sample of 392 primary school children and their mothers. The children were selected randomly from two primary schools randomly selected from Shebeen El-Kom district's primary schools and proportionally allocated according to the total number of children in each school. A predesigned questionnaire was used to assess mother's knowledge, attitude, and practice regarding their child's oral hygiene.
Results
Good knowledge of proper oral hygiene was represented by 88.5% of the studied group. Approximately 70% of the studied group had positive attitude toward proper oral hygiene, and 52.3% had satisfactory level of oral hygiene practice. The study shows a statistical significant difference of mothers' good knowledge level and their education, occupation, and socioeconomic status. Proper knowledge and practice regarding oral hygiene statistically significantly increase the absence of decayed or filled teeth.
Conclusion
Good knowledge, positive attitude, and satisfactory practice of mothers regarding child's oral hygiene affect dental health status of the studied children.
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