DOI: 10.36347/sjds.2016.v03i01.008

Pages: 31-36

Abstract: Dental caries is one of the most common chronic diseases of childhood. Parents have an important role in the control of caries in their child. The aim of this study was to evaluation the effect of parents’ oral health behavior on the SiC, dmft and plaque indices in 7-year-old male students in Kerman, Iran. The method in this cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study, were conducted on 200 male students in Kerman, Iran. The data were collected through questionnaire and clinical examination. Plaque, dmft and SiC indices were measured and recorded for each child. The score of oral health behavior of the parents was gathered through a questionnaire. T-test, regression analysis and Chi-square were used to analyze the data. P<0.05 was considered statistically significant. In results sixty six of the participants were mothers (122 persons). The average age of parents was 34.5 ± 9.71. Forty two percent of the fathers and 26% of the mothers had higher level education. The mean ± SD of SiC and dmft indices were 8.95 ± 1.87 and 5.25 ± 3.27 respectively. The mean ± SD of plaque index in the one third of the population with highest dmft was 98.5 ± 3.59. The mean ± SD score of health performance in the one third of the participants with the highest dmft was 5.87±2.13 , and 6.37±2.10 in the remaining two third. There were statistically significant difference between these two groups (P=0.012). No statistically significant difference existed between the parents’ job and age, and the number of children in family and the SiC index. In conclusion the result of this study showed that Oral health behavior of the parents has a direct association with the caries prevalence in their children. It was also found that the parents’ oral health behavior and demographic characteristics, such as education, considerably affect the SiC and dmft indices in children.