Will the role of family influence dental caries among seven-year-old children?

: Marja-Leena Mattila, Päivi Rautava, Ansa Ojanlatva, Päivi Paunio, Liisa Hyssälä, Hans Helenius, Matti Sillanpää

Publisher: TAYLOR & FRANCIS AS

: 2005

: Acta Odontologica Scandinavica

: ACTA ODONTOLOGICA SCANDINAVICA

: ACTA ODONTOL SCAND

: 63

: 2

: 73

: 84

: 12

: 0001-6357

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00016350510019720(external)

The present study analyzed the prevalence of dental caries as well as associations of dental health and family competence among 7-year-old children and their families. Dental caries status was the outcome variable of the 7-year prospective follow-up study. Pre-tested questionnaires were used to gather data individually from the parents at six points in time (at the public maternity health-care clinic during the mother's pregnancy and at childbirth, at the well-baby clinic at 18 months, and at ages 3, 5, and 7 years). Clinical examinations at dental health-care clinics were used to record dental status indicators of the child at ages 3, 5, and 7 years. A child had caries more often when the mother did not regard it as important to teach a healthy lifestyle right from birth; when the mother undervalued consistent action in child-rearing; when the father preferred merely to explain the causes and consequences during child-rearing (giving no examples); when the father had several new carious teeth per year; when the child consumed sweets several times a week; or when the child's toothbrushing was infrequent. The child's daily dental health behaviors and a strong influence of family competence emerged in the final logistic regression analysis. Dental and well-baby clinic staff members need to discuss consistency in child-rearing with the parents and there is a need for modeling adult dental health behaviors at the time of the mother's pregnancy if the child's future preventive dental health is to function properly.