Knowledge and awareness on infant oral health among parents

Abstract

One of the most common problems that children and infants face, which is due to lack of awareness and knowledge on the same, is Early Childhood Caries. If left untreated, this could complicate various diseases and this signifies the importance of a dental examination in infants. The main aim of this study is to analyse the knowledge and awareness on infant oral health among parents. A self administered questionnaire was circulated via an online google forms link among 150 parents and the statistical software used was SPSS version 22. The statistical test used was the descriptive statistics and Chi square test. The p value less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. The confidence level of the study was set to 95%. In our study, 40.67% felt that the infant’s oral cavity must be cleaned with wet cotton. 76.67% felt that infant’s tooth development affects general health and 44.67% that parafunctional habits affect tooth development. Among the different educational groups of parents who had answered, the PG level educated parents had the highest knowledge among infant oral health. The PG level parents had the highest knowledge and awareness on infant oral health while secondary school level had the least knowledge. In general, the South Indian parents had a moderate level of awareness but, however still presented a need to increase this knowledge and awareness levels.