Mothers’ Knowledge About Fluoride Therapy and Fissu Re Sealants

Background and aim: increased dental caries and dental lesions have made preventive measures, especially amongchildren, inevitable. this study investigated elementary schoolgirls’ mothers’ level of knowledge on preventivemethods against dental caries.methods: in this cross-sectional study, mothers of 250 schoolgirls were randomly selected from five regions oftehran, iran. their knowledge about fissure sealant therapy and fluoride therapy was evaluated using a questionnaire.data was analyzed by analysis of variance and independent t-tests in spss.results: mothers’ knowledge about fissure sealant therapy was lower than fluoride therapy. very low, low, andmoderate levels of knowledge were detected among nearly a quarter, 47.5%, and 22.6% of the participants,respectively. only 5.4% of the subjects had acceptable level of knowledge on preventive dentistry methods. there weresignificant correlations between mothers' level of knowledge and their education level and occupational status.conclusions: educated mothers and working mothers had greater knowledge than did housewives. dentists have acrucial role in increasing mothers' knowledge.