Knowledge on early childhood caries prevention and practices among parents of children attending King Abdul-Aziz University pediatric dental clinics, Saudi Arabia

Abstract Background Children’s oral health maintenance are influenced by their parent's knowledge and behaviors. Parents knowledge and attitude play an important role in preventing oral diseases and improving dental health in their children. Aim: to assess the knowledge and behavior of pediatric parent's attending pediatric dental clinics in King Abdul-Aziz University Dental Hospital toward caries prevention. Materials and method Questionnaires consisting of 36 demographic and knowledge and patients’ practices questions were interviewed with All pediatric parent's (549 parents) attending the pediatric specialty clinics with their children during the year 2018 (from 1st of August 2017 to 31st of July 2018). Results There was a total of 283 respondents (51.5% response rate). Out of them, 79.5% were Saudi, 48.4% of children were males with a mean age 8.6 ± 2.54. Their mean knowledge score was 2.29 and 13.8% scored zero. In addition, 66.4% did not take their children to dentist except if there was a dental problem. The most significant factors affecting parental knowledge was maternal occupation and family income. Conclusion Parental dental knowledge and their behavior after their children dental experience were not satisfactory. Anticipatory guidance should be reinforced by oral health providers.