Abstract

Background: Dental caries has been called as scourge of modern civilization and is without doubt, one of the mankind's most prevalent chronic diseases. The concept of dental neglect may offer a viable linkage between dental health and the cultural, social and attitudinal factors. Aim: To evaluate the role of dental behaviour as intervening factors between maternal education and socio-economic status on one hand and caries experience on the other hand. Material and methods: This study presents demographic and attitudinal data from parents of each 800 children from age groups 10-11 and 14-15 years who were selected by a stratified random sampling technique. The association of dental neglect and caries status was tested by first dichotomizing the continuous dental neglect variable and secondly using analysis of variance to examine DMFS of individual age group respectively and their components. Results: Study showed that dental neglect was greater among females, older children, those whose mother had less education, children who had not received dental care in previous two years, and those for whom the responding parent's last dental visit was due to problem rather than for a routine examination. Among the older children, those in higher dental neglect group had significantly higher dental caries experience (DMFS with P < 0.001), and greater number of decayed permanent tooth surface (P < 0.019). Conclusions: Dental neglect scale may have utility in predicting and understanding variation in dental health, and to provide education to promote dental health.

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