ABSTRACT
Objective: To assess the perception of mothers on the importance of deciduous teeth and correlate with eating habits, oral hygiene and infant oral health status (presence or absence of early childhood caries - ECC). Material and Methods: Study's participants were 80 mothers of children of both genders, from two to five years old, with and without severe ECC. The mothers were divided into two groups according to the child's oral health. A questionnaire at the form of an interview was applied to mothers with questions on sociodemographic characteristics, eating habits and oral hygiene, and the importance of primary teeth. Mothers were asked to respond according to a Likert scale modified "strongly agree", "partially agree", "partially disagree" and "strongly disagree". The data about oral health status of the child (absence or presence of ECC) were collected from dental records. Results: It was observed that in relation to scores of oral hygiene and eating habits and the importance of primary teeth, the predominance was observed of scores above 10 points, 56.3%, 93.8% e 92.5%, respectively. For the two groups there was no significant difference. Conclusion: The largest number of preschool children's mothers that have ECC do not know the importance of primary tooth and the important functions it performs. There was no correlation between eating habits, oral hygiene and infant oral health status.