Parental knowledge, awareness and acceptance of silver diamine treatment among patients from Modinagar, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

Silver diamine fluoride has emerged as a non invasive effective therapy for arresting active carious lesions. Therefore, it is of interest to assess parental knowledge, awareness and acceptance of SDF. A cross sectional questionnaire based survey was conducted among 62 parents visiting the Department of Pedodontics along with their children in Modinagar. A 15 item pre-validated questionnaire was used to record baseline characteristics of child’s parents and their knowledge, awareness and acceptance of SDF for their child for prevention of dental caries. 80.6% participants were aware that SDF is painless procedure whereas majority of the participants were not sure about whether placement of filling required post SDF treatment (48.4%), SDF treatment be done outside dental clinic (61.3%), and about any agents that reduce SDF staining (64.5%). Majority 71% participants were aware about SDF treatment's side effects, 90.3% aware whether their child experienced teeth blackening after SDF treatment and 83.9% aware about whether SDF treatment immediately relieves the child's pain. 90.3% preferred SDF treatment, 83.9% opted for SDF treatment despite of its tooth blackening effects. A statistically significant association was found between SDF acceptance and age of their child. There is a lack of knowledge about SDF among the study participants emerging a need for proper education to them when they visit a dental setting with their child. Although it causes discolouration of teeth post SDF treatment, still parents are willing to accept SDF as a treatment modality for their child’s oral health.