ABSTRACT
Background: Dental cares is a prevalent health problem among preschool children, despite the fact that oral health is a main component of preschool children's well-being
Objectives: To assess the knowledge and practice of mothers in Tabuk city, Saudi Arabia towards their preschool children oral health
Methods: This cross-sectional study was carried at Tabuk city, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. It was carried out in King Khalid military. All mothers having children aged between 3 and 6 years and attended the out-patients' clinics of King Khalid military hospital during the period of August1[st]-October 31[st], 2017 and accept to participate were invited to be included in the study sample. Arabic self-administered structured questionnaire was utilized for collecting data. It includes two main sections. The first section includes socio-demographic information and the second section includes ten knowledge and nine practice questions regarding children's dental health and hygiene
Results: The study included 389 mothers. More than half of children were males [50.4%]. Nearly one-third of mothers [34.3%] were in the age group 30-34 years whereas 10.3% of them aged above 45 years. Almost half of mothers [49.4%] reported all of social media, dentist and mass media as a source of information regarding oral health and hygiene whereas social media and dentist alone were reported by 17.2% and 21.3% of them, respectively. Collectively, sufficient knowledge was observed among 26% of the participants whereas adequate practice regarding oral health was reported by 36.5% of mothers. Dental cares was reported among 115 children [29.6%] whereas dental deformity was reported among 171 children [44%]
Conclusion: This study revealed insufficient knowledge and inadequate practice of mothers regarding their children oral health and hygiene. Some factors were identified affecting both child's oral health knowledge and practice