Infant Oral Health Care Concerning Education of Mothers – Part 2

Infant oral health care is essential in a way where it provides a solid foundation on which a healthy oral environment is augmented. Dental caries is perhaps the most infectious and prevalent disease seen in the current scenario. Dental caries is 5 times more common than asthma and 7 times more common than hay fever in children. Rotten primary teeth can influence kids' development, lead to malocclusion, and result in huge torment and possibly perilous swelling. To forestall caries in youngsters, high-risk individuals should be distinguished at an early age (ideally high-risk moms during pre-birth care), and aggressive strategies ought to be received, such as anticipatory guidance, behaviour modifications (oral cleanliness and taking care of practices). On establishment of Dental Home, mothers should be told about preventive measures to take during teething of infants and how to administer oral care and proper cleaning of teeth.

Infant Oral Health Care Concerning Education of Mothers – Part 1

Infant oral health is one of the most overlooked aspects when it comes to the oral well -being of a child because many do not consider it to be of much significance. This is generally due to the misconception that children do not have teeth during this phase which leads to the conclusion that focus could be on other developmental aspects. There is also a deficit in the education of parents and family members. Knowledge of mothers is of extreme importance because they need to be well aware that a child's first dental visit should be between 6 - 12 months of age to maximize the preventive potential of fluorides, health literacy and dietary modifications. Oral health, when integrated into primary medical care, can result in improved outcomes for children. A simple message of fluoride adequacy, dietary control of bottle use and sweet intake, oral hygiene, and regular dental visits cross professional barriers. This literature review aims to give mothers and family members access to information so that we can optimise the oral health of the infant. KEY WORDS Infant Oral Health, Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Mothers, Anticipatory Guidance, Early Childhood caries.

Infant oral health care: a review on parent’s role in infant oral health

The maintenance and prevention of oral health is one of major concern of parents. Dental caries is one of most common oral manifestation because of lack of knowledge and improper techniques. The first visit should be planned at early ages only so that proper guidance and knowledge should be imparted to the parent to prevent oral diseases. The first visit should include oral screening, oral habit monitoring, Brushing technique demonstration and fluoride application if needed. There should be more involvement to strengthen the role of pediatricians’ in children’s oral health requires an understanding of their current knowledge and practice. In this scoping review, we aimed to comprehensively map what is known about the knowledge and practice of parents regarding children’s oral health.

Knowledge and attitude on infant oral health among graduating medical students in Nepal

Background: Overall, children less than five years old are seen more by a physician than a dentist. Physician need more knowledge and skills to address children’s oral health due to the prevalence of dental diseases, the racial and socioeconomic disparities in disease burden, and the restricted access to dental care for many children. Thus, integrating oral health disease prevention and promotion strategies into these medical professionals’ practice becomes essential. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of graduating medical students of Nepal towards infant oral health. Methods: A self-administered questionnaire included questions on knowledge and attitude regarding infant oral health was distributed to 180 final year MBBS students of Nepal. Data were collected and entered in Microsoft Excel sheet and analysis was done using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 20. Results: The mean age of the participants was 23.36 ± 1.12 years. Only 23.9% of them knew that dental caries is infectious and transmissible from mother to baby and 38.9% were aware of the association of poor maternal gum health and preterm, low birth weight baby. Almost 73.9% knew that gum pads should be cleaned regularly and 46.1% knew that first dental visit of a child should be as soon as the first tooth erupts. Conclusion: This study shows that graduating medical students of Nepal were knowledgeable about some aspects of early childhood caries and infant oral health, but uncertain about other aspects like the association between poor maternal gum health and premature low birth weight babies.