Oral Health Attitudes, Knowledge, and Behavior Amongst School Going Children

Introduction: This study aims to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, and behaviour of school going children towards the type of food available at school, oral health, oro-dental care and evaluate the factors that define these variables. Materials & Methods: out of 27 private schools in Lahore two schools from low socioeconomic status and 1 school from higher socioeconomic status were randomly selected. The school going children (n=281) with an average age of 11.4 years filled out a questionnaire adapted from Peterson and Stenberg et al that was designed to assess children's behavior, knowledge, and perception of their oral health and dental treatment along with the availability and consumption of healthy food in the school. Results: It was found all the school cafeteria had unhealthy food and had very little focus on healthy nutritious food. It was seen that children's oral hygiene habits were very irregular. This was more prominent in the school with children's' parents belonging to low income group. Nearly 50% of the parents of children in a school with low socioeconomic status did not observe their child when brushing. The study population also showed lesser knowledge of periodontal disease and its treatment than caries. Majority of the subjects only visited the dentist when in pain and there were very few children who went for regular checkups. Children had fear of the treatment and were scared of the needles especially. There were a significant number of parents who did not supervise their child while brushing and oral hygiene maintenance. Conclusion: There is a dire need of recognizing the importance of healthy food in the schools at habit forming stage. Parents along with administration of the school can enforce by practicing what they teach.Parents greatly influence child's oral hygiene.Fear of dental treatment needs to be eliminated by counseling children.