Family resources and parental assistance with child tooth brushing

Although it is generally regarded that brushing with fluoride toothpaste is beneficial for children's oral health, and there is a recommendation that children up to the age of 6 have their tooth brushing supervised, there has been little research into the factors related to parental assistance with tooth brushing. Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effects of family composition and parent's employment status on parental assistance tooth brushing. Methods: Parents of a stratified random sample of 3,574 5–6-year-old children from four Australian states completed a questionnaire with information on tooth brushing as well as questions relating to family characteristics. Results: 19.9% of parents reported not supervising or assisting their child's tooth brushing in any way. After controlling for child age and brushing ability, analyses showed that children from single-parent families (OR = 1.31), families where all parents work full time (OR = 1.49), and families with 3+ children (OR = 1.15) had higher odds of not having their tooth brushing assisted, however no odds ratios were statistically significant. Approximately 41% of children from single-parent families where the parent worked full time and there were 3 or more children in the family had no supervision of or assistance with their tooth brushing. Conclusions: The results suggest the need to take into account family resources relating to time when assessing parental involvement in and supervision of tooth brushing and when determining individual children's caries risk status. This study was funded by a grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council.