Arabian Parents Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice towards their Childrens Oral Health and Early Childhood Caries Resided in Riyadh Province: An Online-Based Cross-Sectional Survey

Author(s):

Abdulrhman Mohammed Alyousef, Bader Abdullah Almehrej, Mohammed Ali Alshahrani, Khaled Masaad Almutairi, Muhannad Abdulrahman Alqasir, Abdullah Alassaf, Basim Almulhim, Sara Alghamdi and Sreekanth Kumar Mallineni*

Aims: To assess parents knowledge, attitude, and practice towards their childrens oral health and early childhood caries in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Methods: A structured questionnaire was used to study the awareness of early childhood caries among Saudi Arabia parents, including understanding the role of diet, brushing, fluoride, and their effect in social life. Saudi Arabian male and female participants having children above two years were included in the study in the Riyadh region. Non-Saudi males and females, participants residing out of the Riyadh region and those having children above six were excluded. Demographic data include gender, education, and experience level, were collected. The comparisons were made based on gender (male and female), age (20-29 years; 31-40 and 40 years), and education (high school, diploma, graduation, and post-graduation). Data were analyzed using the statistical package IBM SPSS statistics for windows, version24.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp; 2016. Results: A total of 866 (55.9% males and 44.1% females; >20-30 years (33%), 30-39 years (32.7%), and 40 years (34%); high school degrees (19.2%), diploma (16.3%) graduate degree (52.0%), and postgraduates (13%) participated in the study from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Among the participants, 54.5% brushed their teeth once, and 45.5% brushed twice, whereas 63.7% responded that their children should brush twice daily. Among parents, 85.5% use fluoride toothpaste and 14.5% use non-fluoride toothpaste. The percentage of parents using fluoridated toothpaste for children declined to 50.6% compared to their personal use (85.5%). The use of non-fluoride toothpaste for children was 49.4%. A 43.6% of fathers and 49.7% of mothers agreed that dental caries could affect children below two years of age (p>0.05). A majority of fathers (88.6%) and mothers (86.1%) agreed that eating sweets can cause dental decay (p>0.05). The fathers (75.40%) and mothers (81.70%) regarding the knowledge and awareness to opt for dental fillings to decayed teeth for children at an early age (p>0.05). Conclusion: The parents had sufficient knowledge of tooth decay, dietary influence on tooth decay. The majority of the parents were unable to reveal details of their childrens tooth brushing and toothpaste. The parent needs to improve knowledge on tooth brushing and the use of the fluoridated tooth.