Oral Health Status And Behaviour Of 6-7-year-old Schoolchildren In Yichang City

Objectives: The objectives of the study were: (1) to describe oral health status of 6-7-year old schoolchildren, (2) to evaluate the pattern of oral health behaviour, (3) to assess the relative effect of socio-behavioural risk factors on oral health behaviour and dental caries experience, and (4) to assess dental knowledge and behavior among school teachers and the mothers of the children. Methods: Dental caries of 1898 6-7-year-old children in Yichang City was recorded according to WHO criteria. Collected data from 1365 (response rate, 71.4%) mothers with first grade student and 215 school teacher in Yichang city by highly structured questionnaires were analyzed.Results: The caries prevalence was 72.1 per cent for primary teeth and 5.2% for the permanent teeth in 6-7-year-old children in Yichang City. The mean dmft was 3.78 for primary teeth and 0.07 for permanent teeth. About 40 per cent of the children brushed their teeth twice a day or more often and 57.6 per cent once a day. Fluoridated toothpaste was used by 78.5% of the children. Nearly half of the children had seen a dentist during the last year while 34.2 per cent had never visited a dentist. The children' diet were mainly starch and cellulose, with consumption of a little sugary foods and drinks. The results of logistic regressionanalyses indicated that children' brushing behaviour was mainly affected by mothers' brushing behaviour, children' dental visiting behaviour was mainly affected by mothers' dental visiting behaviour. Caries experience of the children was related to frequency of siiacks between meals, consumption of sugary foods and use of fluoride toothpaste. Level of dental knowledge was higher among teachers than among mothers; the mothers were mostly informed through television/book (62.4%/51.5%), while teachers received information from various sources, including the dentists (75.3%). Almost all children (94.0%) didn't have practical support from then- parents in daily toothcleaning. Only 18.9 percent of mothers had visited the dentist within a year.Conclusions: (1) the children of 6-7-year-old have high caries levels for primary teeth and substantial proportions of children have poor oral health behaviour; (2) regular oral health behaviour and high education of mothers have positive influence upon children's oral health habits; (3) children's oral health status was affected by their dietary habits; (4) there is an urgent need for implementation of systematic oral health education and promotion programmes for children in Yichang City; and (4) we should emphasize oral heath education among mother and schoolteachers in order to promote oral health education and promotion programmes.