Parental attitudes to the care of the carious primary dentition - experience from a Nigerian tertiary Hospital

Abstract

Objective: To examine the factors associated with parents’ choices of dental care concerning carious primary teeth of their children. Methods: A structured, self-administered questionnaire was issued to parents of children attending the paediatric dental clinic of the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan. Items in the questionnaire included a section on the past dental visit(s) of parents, reason(s) for the clinic attendance and treatment(s) received, the second section contained items on parental treatment preferences under two different clinical scenarios of child dental health; scenario 1, asymptomatic carious primary tooth and scenario 2, symptomatic carious primary tooth. The last section contained items on determinants of parents’ choice of treatment. Results: Majority of the accompanying parent were mothers (75.8%) with a mean age of 39.3+ 6.81, fathers were 20.8% with a mean age of 45.1± 5.24 while others were 3.4% with a mean age of 51.2+ 1.09. Under the two clinical scenarios, majority of the parents preferred the dentist to determine the treatment of their children (scenario 1 = 53.7%; scenario 2 = 62.5 %). The accompanying parents and their socioeconomic status had no significant effect on parental preferences under the two clinical scenarios while past parental dental treatment had the greatest influence on parental choice (scenario 1: x2 = 12.93; p= 0.03 for past fillings experience and scenario 2: x = 6.881, p = 0.01 for past extraction experience). Conclusion: The reliance of parents on dentist for decision on the choice of their children dental treatment and the dependence of parents’ choice on their past dental treatment experience suggested the need for dental health education to both parents and children on dental caries.