The situation of the child caretakers' behaviors which related to dental caries in pre-school children in year 2004.

Abstract

The objective of this survey was to update the situation of child caretakers' behaviors which related to dental caries in pre-school children. The cross-sectional survey was performed in 5 provinces. The samples were 802 child caretakers who took care of one-year-old children whose ages were between 12-24 months, and 797 child caretakers who took care of four-year-old children whose ages were between 48-60 months. The results are: Caries prevalence was found to be 10.16% in one-year-old children and 69.03% in four-year-old children. 54.73% of the one-year-olds and 39.6% of the four-year-olds were taken cared by their own parents. 85.28% of one-year-old children had bottle fed at bed-time. 85.81% of one-and-a-half-year-old children prolonged bottle feeding. Sweet flavor milk had been provided to 44.73% of the one-year-olds and to 66.52% of the four-year-olds. 51.72 % of the four-year-olds consumed snacks more than twice a day. In everyday, 44.81% of the one-year-olds had been tooth brushed by parents while 68.41% of the four-yearolds brushed their teeth without parent assistance. 16.21% of the one-year-olds had six-month routine oral examinations by the health personnel while 34.65% of the four-year-olds had one-year routine oral examinations. The factors which related to dental caries in one-year-old children were bottle feeding, the milk flavors, the use of toothpaste, and the oral examination by the health personnel. In four-year-old children, the factors were the tooth brushing, the consumption of snacks, and the oral examination by the health personnel (sig. as Asymp. < 0.05).