Relationship between Parent Awareness of Oral Health Behavior and Early Childhood Caries

Objective:To evaluate the relationship between parent awareness of caries susceptibility and early childhood caries(ECC)in 3~4 year old children.Factors such as brushing behavior,sugar intake behavior and bed time feeding behavior were considered.Methods:Ninety-seven kids aged 36~47 months and their parents were interviewed.According to caries status,the kids were classified into two groups:caries free group(dmft=0,n=48)and early childhood caries(ECC)group(dmft≥1,n=49).A questionnaire survey was completed by their parents.The relationship between parents awareness of risk factor and early childhood caries was analyzed with χ2 test.Results:The differences in the two groups were satistically significant(P0.05)in the following four aspects:parents' skills in helping children brushing teeth and controlling sugar intake,parents' attitude toward brushing teeth after bed time feeding,time lasted for bed time feeding.Conclusion:It was found that parents' skills in helping children brushing teeth and controlling sugar intake,bed time feeding behaviour had strong correlation with ECC.