IADR Abstract Archives
Delayed Dental Care For Children: An Exploration Of Parental Factors
Objectives: To investigate the factors that contribute to parental delays in seeking dental treatment for their children.
To explore alternative oral care that parents engage in before seeking oral health services.
To measure the association between knowledge, attitude, and perception and parental delays in seeking dental treatment for their children.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted at 8 facilities within Tshwane Oral Health District. A process of triangulation was used to collect relevant data by; (i) A semi-structured questionnaire, (ii) In depth interviews and (iii) Focus groups. Data was analysed using SPSS, tests for measures of central tendency, dispersion, frequency and association were carried out.
Results: There was a 100% response rate (n=350). Financial constraints, knowledge, perception of treatment need and absent parenting, were the main factors affecting delayed treatment. For 58.3% of the caregivers, pain was their main motivator to bring in their children for a consultation. Prior to a consultation, as many as 47.4% of the guardians were managing their children’s pain at home with either over the counter medication or a home remedy. The majority of the caregivers, 78.6% believe that extraction is the best treatment for caries, as informed by oral health professionals. Most of the guardian, 88% were more inclined to take their children to a health facility for medical conditions rather than for dental conditions.
Conclusions: Oral health literacy of caregivers was very low. Attitudes of healthcare professionals contributed significantly to the negative perceptions of oral health care by caregivers, inadvertently reinforcing wrong information pertaining to the aetiology of caries and management thereof.
The tendency to seek dental care was highly associated with dental knowledge, financial constraints and attitudes of health professionals at dental facilities.
To explore alternative oral care that parents engage in before seeking oral health services.
To measure the association between knowledge, attitude, and perception and parental delays in seeking dental treatment for their children.
Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted at 8 facilities within Tshwane Oral Health District. A process of triangulation was used to collect relevant data by; (i) A semi-structured questionnaire, (ii) In depth interviews and (iii) Focus groups. Data was analysed using SPSS, tests for measures of central tendency, dispersion, frequency and association were carried out.
Results: There was a 100% response rate (n=350). Financial constraints, knowledge, perception of treatment need and absent parenting, were the main factors affecting delayed treatment. For 58.3% of the caregivers, pain was their main motivator to bring in their children for a consultation. Prior to a consultation, as many as 47.4% of the guardians were managing their children’s pain at home with either over the counter medication or a home remedy. The majority of the caregivers, 78.6% believe that extraction is the best treatment for caries, as informed by oral health professionals. Most of the guardian, 88% were more inclined to take their children to a health facility for medical conditions rather than for dental conditions.
Conclusions: Oral health literacy of caregivers was very low. Attitudes of healthcare professionals contributed significantly to the negative perceptions of oral health care by caregivers, inadvertently reinforcing wrong information pertaining to the aetiology of caries and management thereof.
The tendency to seek dental care was highly associated with dental knowledge, financial constraints and attitudes of health professionals at dental facilities.