Knowledge and attitude of Saudi mothers towards their preschool children’s oral health

Objectives: to determine knowledge and attitude of saudi mothers towards their preschool children’s oral health. methods: one hundred and one mothers (of children aged 16 to 40 months) attending well-baby clinics at security forces hospital polyclinics in makkah al-mukarrama participated in the study. a questionnaire was used to collect the required information. results: a great majority (92.1%) of the mothers agreed that “baby teeth are important for child’s general health. similarly, 90.1% of the mothers agreed that “using fluoridated toothpaste helps to prevent tooth decay”. about four in every ten mothers (43.6%) agreed that a child should be allowed to use a bottle atwill when he/she becomes able to hold it. more than half of the mothers (54.5%) agreed that letting baby sleep with bottle still in the mouth was of no harm to teeth. a significantly (p=0.04) higher percentage of high socioeconomic status (ses) mothers as compared to middle ses mothers (85.9% versus 55.6%) agreed that “frequent feeding with milk or milk formula is of no harm to baby’s teeth”. a significantly (p=003) higher percentage of the middle ses mothers as compared to high ses mothers (66.7% versus 17.4%) agreed that a child should only visit a dentist in case of a dental pain/problem. conclusions: the mothers need to be educated in several important areas related to feeding, diet and first dental check-up visit of their children.