Assessment of Parents Involvement and the Awareness of Oral Hygiene Practices among 5–12 Years Old School-children

Objective: To assess parent's involvement and awareness of oral hygiene practices for children aged 5-12 years.Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study was done among, N = 162 parents of children aged between 5 and 12 years using convenience sampling reporting to Asan Memorial Dental College and Hospital.Results: Majority of the parents reported that they started brushing their child's teeth at 1 year of age N = 69 (42.6%) followed by N = 63 (38.9%).Parents reported brushing their child's teeth after the 1st tooth erupts into the oral cavity N = 81 (50%).Only N = 30 (18%) parents reported brushing their child's teeth 2 times per day as per recommendation, while N = 81 (50%) of the parents reported changing the child's toothbrush once every 3 months.N = 71 (43.8%) parents reported that once or twice the child had complained of toothache in the past few months.N = 107 (66%) parents reported visiting the dentist if the child complaints of decay or tooth pain.N = 88 (54.3%) parents reported visiting a dentist once in a year.Conclusion: Role of the parents in the oral hygiene practices of children is relatively good but the attitude of the parents toward oral hygiene needs to be improved more in order to further improve and maintain the oral hygiene and oral health of children.