Parents' Attitude towards the Use of Fluorides and Fissure Sealants and its Effect on their Children's Oral Health

Abstract

Objectives: To characterize the attitudes of Israeli parents towards caries preventive measures. Study design: participating parents completed a 21-item questionnaire on their demographics, dental history, attitudes and satisfaction from fluorides and fissure sealants. Results: One hundred parents (average age 41.62±4.9 years, 85 females) participated. Most of the parents (88% of the mothers and 84% of the fathers) had an academic education. Most of the parents (54%) had a favorable attitude towards the use of fluoridated gels, while only 37% of them had a positive opinion regarding fluoridated water. The satisfaction levels were very high regarding fissure sealants, fluoridated mouth rinses and fluoridated gels (78.1%, 73.6% and 72.5% respectively). The satisfaction from fluoridated water was split almost equally (50.8% were ‘pleased’ and 49.2% ‘not pleased’). The main source for parental oral health knowledge was the dentist (83%). Parents' attitude towards caries preventive measures was significantly correlated to their gender, dental experience, level of education and the number of children in the family. Conclusions: positive attitude towards caries preventive measures was found among parents with higher awareness for preventive oral health measures and among bigger families. Mothers were more positive about fissure sealants than fathers. Mothers with up to 12 years of education tended to have a positive opinion regarding water fluoridation.