Knowledge of male and female midwestern college students about baby bottle tooth decay.

The purpose of this bellwether study was to establish the level of knowledge a group of young men and women college students had about baby bottle tooth decay (BBTD) and the associated risk factors. The results show that knowledge about BBTD is very limited even among a well-educated group of young adults. Overall 39% of the respondents had heard of BBTD whereas 87% had heard of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Thirty-two percent thought BBTD was a fictional (vs. "real" or "unsure") health problem, while 3% of the respondents thought SIDS was a fictional health problem. Knowledge about overall risk factors for oral disease was greater than that for BBTD. Further, these subjects report that if they believed that adopting a certain feeding practice would reduce the risk of tooth decay for their babies, they would be likely to adopt it. Men and women significantly differed on the age at which a child should first see a dentist (chi sq = 19.56, df = 5, P < 0.01). Forty-five percent of the men selected either when the first tooth erupts or between 6-18 months as the time a child should first be seen by a dentist. Only 11% of the women thought a child should be seen that early. Forty-five percent of the women students selected 2-3 years as the earliest age at which a child should be seen by a dentist. Implications of this research are discussed.