Early childhood caries and psychological perceptions on child's oral health increase the feeling of guilt in parents: an epidemiological survey.

AIM: To assess whether parents feel guilty for their children's oral problems, associating this feeling with socio-economic, demographic, and psychological factors.

DESIGN

We included 1313 parent-and-child pairs in this study. The children were 2-4 years old. Parents answered questionnaires on socio-economic and demographic data, and on psychological variables. Sixteen trained dentists (κ > 0.8) examined the children for oral hygiene (the presence and absence of plaque), early childhood caries (ECC; no caries, low and high severity), malocclusion (the presence and absence), and traumatic dental injuries (TDI; the presence and absence). We analysed the data with a hierarchical regression.

RESULTS

Twenty-four percentage of parents reported feeling guilty for the oral problems in their children; 26.3% of the children presented with caries, 39.8% malocclusion, 22.9% TDI. Of the parents who felt guilty, 54% thought that their children had problems in their teeth, and most of them (82%) thought that the problem could have been avoided. The feeling of guilt in parents was significantly associated with ECC and the psychological variables: the thought that the child had problems in his/her teeth and the thought that the problem could have been avoided.

CONCLUSION

Parents feel more guilty with increased caries severity in their children, and the likelihood of feeling guilty increases when parents believe that their child has an oral problem or that this problem could have been avoided.