Determinants of the use of dental care of deciduous teeth in children – questionnaires

Introduction. Nationwide epidemiological studies indicate that the need for tooth decay treatment is not sufficiently met despite the risk of multiple complications. Limited access to paediatric dental care and improper parental attitude towards deciduous teeth treatment may be the causes of neglect. Aim. To define factors determining the use of dental care of deciduous teeth in children. Material and methods. Parents of 4- to 10-year-old children attending a randomly selected primary school and kindergarten in Warsaw participated in the study. The respondents answered 21 questions concerning their socio-economic situation, the oral health of their children and previous use of dental care by their children. Descriptive statistics and Spearman’s correlation coefficients were calculated for the analysed quantitative variables. Logistic regression analysis of statistically relevant correlations was performed (Statistica 13, statistical significance p < 0.05). The study was approved by the Bioethics Committee of the Medical University of Warsaw (no. AKBE 171/16). Results. The analysis included 295 questionnaires. The majority of respondents (87.1%) were women with mean age of 36.73 ± 5.44 years, who had children with mean age of 7.31 ± 1.96 years. Nearly all respondents answered correctly to the questions concerning health awareness. A total of 74.2% of children had positive attitude towards dental appointments. It is more likely that parents will visit a dentist regularly if their child’s first dental visit is before the age of 3 years (OR = 2.77), and the child is not afraid of doctors due to previous medical experience (OR = 0.24). Conclusions. First dental visit before the age of 3 years, a lack of fear of doctors and positive attitude towards dentists have a significant impact on the frequency of dental visits.