Caries
Moones Rajabi, DMD
Resident
Other
Saint Joseph's University Medical Center
Teaneck, New Jersey, United States
Helen Ann DeSimone, Pediatric Dentist
Program Director
Saint Joseph's University Medical Center
Paterson, New Jersey, United States
Helen Ann DeSimone, Pediatric Dentist
Program Director
Saint Joseph's University Medical Center
Paterson, New Jersey, United States
Purpose: The aim of this descriptive study was to evaluate the oral habits and knowledge of dental caries among mothers of 0-71 months old children living in northern New Jersey to raise their awareness about children’s oral hygiene.
Methods: We distributed a 16 questions survey asking 31 mothers about their oral health and that of their children at the dental clinic of Saint Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, NJ. We divided the questions into 4 groups. The first group of questions were about mother’s age, level of education, ethnicity and number of children in their household. The second group was about mother’s oral hygiene. The third group was about knowledge of dental caries and the last group consisted of questions about mother’s behavior towards their child’s health care. We assigned a score to each question in the survey and each survey was given a final score. We considered any score 24 and above a high knowledge of oral health.
Results: 31 surveys were collected. 58% of mothers were below 35 years old, 75% were Hispanic. 61% reported a maximum level of education obtained as high school and 61% had 2 or less number of children in their household. P values were insignificant for the outcome variable, oral hygiene score. For age, P value was 0.512, education, P value=0.511, ethnicity, P value=0.349 and number of children, P value=0.963.
Conclusion: There was no significant relationship between mother’s age, level of education, ethnicity and the number of children with their knowledge of oral hygiene. Close collaboration between dental team and pediatricians might have led to an increase in number of children’s dental visits and consequently higher oral hygiene knowledge.