Assessment of Pediatricians’ Knowledge and Behavior Towards Children’s Oral Health

Objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the current oral health knowledge and behavior of pediatricians and pediatric residents towards a team-based oral health care for children provided at the pediatric dental clinic.
Methods: Data was collected using questionnaires from 69 pediatric residents and pediatricians at the Boston Medical Center (BMC), Boston, Massachusetts, to assess knowledge and behavior towards children’s oral health. Scores were assigned to individual questions, which were then used to calculate the total score for each participant. Descriptive statistics and two sample t-tests were used to detect significant differences between the different oral health-related knowledge levels.
Results: Among the participants 84.1% scored low in terms of their total knowledge. When analyzing specific categories, particularly the participants’ approach to oral health practice and their level of confidence in providing oral health assessment and parental education, the majority (95.7%) showed low confidence levels. About 50% of the sample population scored high when evaluating their awareness about certain preventable measures, dietary habits, and oral systemic connections. Overall, the scores for general oral health knowledge that included questions on dental decay, tooth eruption, toothpaste and dental visits, were high among 81.2% of the participants. When comparing the mean scores between those who scored high versus low, statistically significant differences were detected for general knowledge, knowledge on preventable measures and level of confidence in oral health assessment and parenteral education (p = 0.03, 0.01 and <0.001 respectively). There were no statistically significant differences when comparing the mean scores for dietary knowledge and knowledge on oral systemic connections between those who scored high versus those who scored low (p = 0.11 and 0.05 respectively).
Conclusions: Our analysis clearly supports the need to improve oral health-related knowledge among pediatricians, which will in turn promote inter-professional collaboration and provide an efficient team-based oral health care for children.