Oral health problems and treatment seeking behavior of children during COVID 19 pandemic as perceived by parents- A cross sectional study

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the impact of COVID 19 pandemic on the oral health status and oral health care use of children from the perspective of parents. The sociodemographic factors that determined the oral health care use and oral health status of children were also investigated. The decreased health seeking behavior trends of parents during the pandemic could have had its effects on the present oral health problems of children because most of the oral health problems are cumulative in nature. Designed as a hospital based cross sectional study, 187 parents of children between the age of 4 years and 13 years who reported to the out patient department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry were personally interviewed by the principal investigator using the prepared proforma and the data collected entered manually. The most common dental problems experienced by children was dental caries followed by tooth ache, swelling and irregularly or forwardly placed teeth. Majority of children who experienced dental problems during the pandemic did not seek treatment due to a variety of reasons. Those parents who didn’t did not seek treatment during the pandemic reported that their fear of contracting the COVID-19 virus from care centres and other public places, lack of adequate transportation facilities due to lock down, restricted services offered by health care facilities, reluctance to make children undergo COVID screening and financial problems due to job loss or reduced salary prevented them from doing so. The long term burden of neglected oral health on the social, financial and general well being of people especially children has been underestimated during the pandemic. Hence, better preparedness and intervention of the health care sector and policy makers in providing timely oral health care is warranted in the event of any untoward similar situations in future.