Parental Education and Socioeconomic Status (SES)
The protection of healthy teeth in children and adolescents is greatly influenced by the parental attitudes and behavior regarding oral hygiene.[20]The foundation of a child’s oral hygiene habits and occurrence of oral disease is dependent on the skills and attitudes of the parent.[20] According to Saldunaite et al[20], family can shape a child’s environment creating a “healthy lifestyle, increasing self-confidence and habit formation.” This was a study conducted among the parents of Lithuanian children from January to May 2010 to analyze the relation between parental education and socioeconomic status in the prevention of dental caries.[20]According to the results of the study, parents with a higher educational background achieved a higher score compared to parents with a lower educational background. Similarly, parents with a higher family income scored higher compared to parents with lower family income.[20]Further, a study by Cianetti et al[21], suggested a similar finding, the prevalence of caries was higher among children whose mothers had a lower educational background and of lower income. The results of this study …show more content…
These studies suggested that children’s whose mother had “good oral health knowledge were less likely to have dental caries compared to those with poor oral health knowledge.” Besides parental education, socioeconomic status played an important role in the development of ECC among children. It was noted, that children from lower income homes were 1.3 times more at risk of developing caries as compared to children from higher income homes. In addition to parental education and socioeconomic status playing a vital role in the contribution of dental caries, disparities among certain minority population still