Assessment of parents' knowledge, attitude, and practices regarding self-medication for their child's dental problems during COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey

Background: Self-medication (SM) refers to taking medicine without consultation with a doctor or dentist, and it is an important health issue, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The present study aims to evaluate parents' knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding SM for their children's dental problems during the COVID-19 pandemic in Kollam district, Kerala, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was carried out in the Public Health Center at Kollam District. A questionnaire which consists of 20 questions was given among a total of 108 parents who agreed to participate in the study. Data were entered into Microsoft Excel data sheet and were analyzed using SPSS for Windows (Statistical Presentation System Software, SPSS Inc.) version 17.0. Continuous data were represented as mean and standard deviation. Results: The majority of parents (n = 108, 82.4%) practiced SM for their children's dental problems. Analgesics were the most commonly used medicines by parents in their SM and mainly SM was done for tooth pain. The current study also showed that most parents who practiced SM thought it was difficult to access health-care providers mainly due to COVID-19 and 63% of people said that their SM practice increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusion: The prevalence of SM practices for children's dental problems is high in Kerala during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teledentistry might be a useful tool to overcome problems related to the SM of children during times when the ability to reach health-care providers is limited, during pandemics.