Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Parents of Children Aged 7-12years regarding Pit and Fissure Sealant Therapy - A Questionnaire Survey

Abstract

Objective: Parents of children aged 7-12 years were evaluated for knowledge, attitude and practice regarding pit and fissure sealant
therapy, its association with parents age and level of education. To find the correlation between knowledge, attitude and practice.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in an outpatient paediatric clinic of a tertiary dental hospital. An 18- item selfadministered,
validated questionnaire was given to the parents of children fulfilling the inclusion criteria. The data collected were
subjected to statistical analysis using frequency of responses and ANOVA, Tukey’s HSD Post hoc test , and Pearson’s correlation
coefficient.
Results: Parents are found to be unaware regarding the non- invasive nature of pit and fissure therapy this propose for health-care
workers to guide the parents regarding the same. 67% of the parents have visited the dentist due to complaint of pain in child teeth
which is surprising as 43% agreed to get pit and fissure sealant if the dentist prescribed it. Younger aged and highly educated parents
have reported better attitude towards preventive therapy compared to their counterparts. Attitude of the parents correlated with their
practice (p=0.003).
Conclusion: Child care professionals must anticipate emerging oral health issues that a child may face on each visit and make necessary
referrals as the parent’s high knowledge is not being reflected in the practice scores. So, parents should be encouraged to provide their
child with various preventive therapies available through proper education by various health care professionals.