Oral Health Care rendered to Infants and Young Children by a group of Saudi Mothers.

This study was undertaken to investigate oral health measures rendered to infants and young children by a group of Saudi mothers and also to determine their knowledge of the time of a child's first dental visit.Cross-sectional questionnaire survey was carried out on mothers whose children, aged 5 to 40 months, articipated in the study of eruption times of primary dentition in Saudi children. Methods and frequency of cleaning the child's teeth at three age-groups corresponding to mean number of erupted teeth were determined and related to mothers' educational level and family size. Chi-square test was used in statistical analysis.Results show that of 446 children, 49.8% never had their teeth cleaned at all, particularly at age 5-15 months, while 39.9% of the children brushed their teeth or had them brushed by their mothers. Fluoride toothpaste was used by 31.4% of the children. Method and frequency of cleaning the child's dentition was related to maternal education and family size with educated mothers using more appropriate techniques. Almost 90% of the mothers were ignorant of the 12 months recommended time of a child's first dental visit. It can be concluded that: one in two children never had their teeth cleaned at all especially before the full complement of the primary dentition. Tooth brushing habit with fluoride toothpaste was very low among the age group studied There was lack of knowledge among this group of mothers regarding the recommended time of 12 months for a child's first dental visit.King Saud Universit