Perception of Dental Students towards Infant Oral Health Care and Early Childhood Caries

ABSTRACT

Early childhood caries can lead to a higher risk of new carious lesions in both primary and permanent dentition, hospitalizations, increased treatment expenditure, risk for delayed physical growth and development, loss of school days with restricted activity, diminished oral health related quality of life and psychological distress to parents. Infant oral health is one of the foundations on which dental care and preventive education must be built to allow a lifetime opportunity free from preventable oral diseases. The purpose of this study was to determine the baseline knowledge and attitude of undergraduate dental students regarding early childhood caries and infant oral health and to propose ways to improve the undergraduate dental curriculum particularly in the prevention of Infant Oral Health diseases. Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out among third and final year students of Government Dental College and Hospital, Srinagar, India in December 2019. Data was collected using a self-structured questionnaire. The questionnaires were entered into excel worksheet for cleaning and imported into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) for analysis. Results: About eighty five (85 %) of students had a good knowledge about early childhood caries and infant oral health care. Conclusion: There is still a need to improve the knowledge of graduating dental students through effective strategies. They require adequate training in infant oral health care to be included in their curriculum.