Journal of Dental Medicine

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Background and Aims: Fissure sealant therapy is a national program in elementary schools in Iran. Therefore, evaluation of the parents' knowledge and attitude is necessary to improve the program.
Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional and descriptive-analytic study, Iranian students were chosen in a randomized cluster manner. The questionnaires were filled-out by students' parents to evaluate their general information, knowledge, and attitude. Moreover, students were examined for having any fissure-sealed teeth. Data were collected and analyzed by multiple logistic regression tests.
Results: 414 boy students and their parents were participated in this study. 57.6% of parents knew that fissure sealant prevents the caries and 44.5% believed that fissure sealant is important to prevent caries. However, only 8.9% of children had fissure sealant. Parents' knowledge was significantly related to the source of oral health information and oral health education. Regular dental visits and high level education was effective in increasing the knowledge about sealant therapy. There was a significant relation between parents' attitude toward fissure sealant and level of education, oral health education and numbers and times of dental visit (P<0.001). There were a significant relation between tooth sealing and parents' oral health information.
Conclusion: Regular dental visits and oral health education have positive role in parent's knowledge and attitude and practice. So parents must be encouraged to have regular dental visit and dentists must be emphasized to give them necessary education. School is the best place for giving proper information to parents.

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  Background and Aims: Oral health prepares us for daily activities without discomfort, and dissatisfaction. In this research, agreement level between parents and children aged 11-14 year-old in reporting child oral health-related quality of life was studied in Isfahan city.

  Materials and Methods: In this descriptive, analytical and cross-sectional study 128 pairs of parents and children aged 11-14 were selected with random sampling technique from schools in Isfahan and were asked to complete the relevant questionnaires. The questionnaires evaluated quality of life in four fields of oral signs, functional deficits and emotional and social health. In order to evaluate child-parent agreement, intra-correlation coefficient (ICC), Pearson’s correlation coefficient, Spearman’s correlation coefficient and intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) were used (α=0.05).

  Results: The agreements between PPQ_11-14 (parent perception questionnaire), CPQ_11-14 (child perception questionnaire) and the related fields were 0.81, -0.67. The highest agreement level (ICC=0.83) was related to emotional health (excellent), followed by functional deficits (ICC=0.80), social health (ICC=0.69) and oral signs (ICC=0.64). Pearson's test showed significant correlations between CPQ_11-14 and PPQ_11-14 (r=0.81) (P<0.01).

  Conclusion: Although parents, especially mothers, may be used as proxies for their children in relation to quality of life and related fields, the views of both should be obtained in order to fully represent child oral health-related quality of life issues.

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Background and Aims: There is a traditional belief that the primary teeth can be replaced by permanent teeth and preserving them is not important. The aim of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of parents of preschool and elementary school children referring to the Specialty Clinic of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Imam Hossein pediatric hospital about the importance of preserving deciduous teeth and related factors.
Materials and Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 323 parents of preschool and elementary school children referred to the special clinic of Isfahan University of Medical Sciences and Imam Hossein Pediatric hospital. The data collection method was a questionnaire and face-to-face interview. The questionnaire was made, it consisted of 21 multiple-choice questions and descriptive questions. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics tests and analytical tests such as t-test and Pearson correlation coefficient.
Results: The mean score of knowledge of parents was 37.5 with a standard deviation of 16.9, the mean score of attitude was 55.8 with a standard deviation of 11.1 and the mean score of performance was 41.8 with a standard deviation of 15.6 out of 100. Pearson correlation coefficient showed that there was a direct relationship between knowledge, attitude, and performance scores (P<0.001). Parents' knowledge score was directly related to the mothers' and fathers' ages (P<0.001).
Conclusion: According to the results, parents' awareness of the importance of the preservation of deciduous teeth and related factors is poor, their attitudes are neutral and their performance is poor to moderate. It is suggested to improve treatment facilities available for children in the family and to educate parents about the preservation of deciduous teeth.