AU - Moulana, Salma AU - Yashoda, R AU - Puranik, Manjunath AU - SHiremath, S AU - Rahul, Gaikwad TI - Knowledge, attitude and practices towards primary dentition among the mothers of 3-5 year old pre-school children in Bangalore city PT - ARTI DP - 2012 Jul 1 TA - Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry PG - 83-92 VI - 10 IP - 19 4099- https://journals.lww.com/aphd/pages/default.aspx/article.asp?issn=2319-5932;year=2012;volume=10;issue=19;spage=83;epage=92;aulast=Moulana;type=0 4100- https://journals.lww.com/aphd/pages/default.aspx/article.asp?issn=2319-5932;year=2012;volume=10;issue=19;spage=83;epage=92;aulast=Moulana AB - Introduction: Oral health of pre-school children determines the oral health status of the future generations and it is dependent on knowledge, attitude and practices toward primary dentition among the parents of the pre-school children. Objective: To assess and compare the knowledge, attitude and practices towards primary dentition among the mothers of 3-5 year old anganwadi and play home children in Bangalore city. Methodology: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 1000 mothers of 3-5 year old pre-school children, 500 from anganwadi centers and 500 from play homes of Bangalore city. Data was collected through an interview, using a structured proforma. Results: Among the anganwadi mothers, 98.4% had poor knowledge, 49.0% exhibited fair attitude and 97.0% were following poor practices towards the primary dentition of their preschool children, where as none of them in this group neither had good knowledge nor followed good practices. Among the play home mothers, 79.8% had poor knowledge, 74.0% were following poor practices towards primary dentition, 1.0% had good knowledge and only 0.8% were following good practices, 44.8% and 42.6% mothers exhibited fair and good attitude towards primary dentition respectively. Conclusion: Even though attitude of the mothers from both the groups was found to be fair enough, their level of knowledge was low and practices followed towards primary dentition were found to be poor.