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ARTICLE
Year : 2012  |  Volume : 10  |  Issue : 20  |  Page : 17-22

Knowledge, attitude, and practices of the parents towards the oral health of their children and the reasons for not visiting the dentist in Davangere City, Karnataka


1 Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Dr D.Y.Patil Dental College and Hospital, Pimpri, Pune-18, Maharashtra, India
2 Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Manipal College of Dental Sciences, Mangalore, Karnataka, India
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Community Dentistry, College of Dental Sciences, Davangere-577 004, Karnataka, India
4 Professor and Head, Department of Community Dentistry, College of Dental Sciences, Davangere-577 004, Karnataka, India

Correspondence Address:
Amit V Mahuli
Senior Lecturer, Department of Public Health Dentistry, Dr D.Y.Patil Dental College and Hospital, Pimpri, Pune-18, Maharashtra
India
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Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None


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Introduction: Oral health care system remains unexplored by many patients, in spite of the effort of health care workers to reach them. Oral health of children and their parental attitude to various aspects of dentistry needs a thorough study. Objectives: 1) To understand the perception of dental care system among parents and their knowledge, attitude towards dental care. 2) To explore the reason why parents fail to take their children to the dentist. Material & Methods: A cross sectional descriptive household survey was conducted on a sample of 215 parents, randomly selected among residents of Davangere city. Information of gender, education, occupation and number of children was obtained. Questionnaire consisted of questions to assess behavior, attitude and knowledge of parent. Results: Response rate of 92.5% was observed. When respondents were asked whether they check their wards oral health regularly number of positive responses increased as education status increased but response was inversely related to number of children. Similarly awareness to take their child to dentist every 6 months, knowledge about fluoride, pit and fissure sealants were in increasing order of education status. Conclusion: The present study highlights on various aspects that prevent parents from taking their children to dentist, like being busy in their everyday life, anxiety, priority between daily routine and dental treatment, expensive treatment and lack of preventive treatment awareness.


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