ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Oral. Health
Sec. Preventive Dentistry
Volume 5 – 2024 |
doi: 10.3389/froh.2024.1435070
Provisionally accepted
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
Children with chronic diseases tend to experience a considerably higher burden of oral disease compared to their healthy peers. Low awareness of the impact of systemic diseases on oral health, lack of motivation, and discomfort may render the maintenance of good oral hygiene challenging. We conducted a study of four groups of parents: of children with congenital heart disease (CHD), with diabetes mellitus type 1 (DM), and undergoing anti-cancer treatment (ACT); and a control group of healthy children (C). We aimed to compare between the groups, parental attitudes and knowledge of their children’s oral health, and their reports of their children’s dental habits.Methods: Parents who arrived with their children for routine check-ups at three main clinics: cardiology, endocrinology, and hematologyoncology were asked to respond to a questionnaire regarding their children’s oral and dental health.Results: A total of 287 questionnaires were collected from 76 parents of children with CHD, 100 parents of children with DM, 50 parents of children undergoing ACT, and 61 parents who comprised group C. Compared to the CHD and DM groups, the ACT group demonstrated significantly more awareness of the importance of maintaining oral and dental health following diagnosis of their children’s medical condition. Mothers’ education was found to correlate with dental health knowledge. Most children in the DM and C groups had previous dental examinations, compared to only half in the CHD and ACT groups. A higher proportion of the children in the C than the other groups brushed teeth twice daily. The groups were similar in their consumption of sugary drinks, and of sweets and snacks. The children’s specialist physicians were the main source of information on oral health, especially in the ACT group.Although most of the parents reported awareness to the oral health aspects of their children’s disease, only part of them reported that their children visited dentists, and brushed their teeth twice daily. For the parents of children with CHD, DM, and ACT, their children’s treating specialists were the primary source of information regarding oral health. This highlights the importance of clear and continuous communication between pediatric specialists and dentists.
Keywords:
dental health, Oral Health, Children, Awareness, Systemic diseases
Received:
19 May 2024;
Accepted:
07 Oct 2024.
Copyright:
© 2024 Halperson, Badarneh, Zion, Kruchenezki, Goldstein, Gavri, Zangen and Fux-Noy. This is an
open-access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted,
provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the
original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted
academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which
does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Elinor Halperson, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel
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