The influence of parental education, choice of child dentifrice, and its impact on their children's dental caries experience remain unclear. To investigate (a) dentifrice types used by Australian pre-school children, (b) demographic factors that influence parents' dentifrice choice, and (c) whether dentifrice type is related to pre-schooler's caries experience. 155 parent-child dyads were recruited from five random metropolitan childcare centres. Parents completed a questionnaire recording relevant demographics and child dietary preferences, oral hygiene practice, and dental visits. One calibrated operator performed a clinical examination of their pre-schooler for evidence of carious lesions. Data were analysed, and comparisons between variables made using chi-square tests and regression models. 50% of pre-schoolers used <1000 ppm fluoride dentifrice and 29% used non-fluoridated dentifrice. Higher parental education level was associated with the use of non-fluoridated dentifrice (P = .02, χ2 = 0.034). Children with higher brushing frequency were more likely to use fluoridated dentifrice (P = .03, χ2 < 0.001). The proportion of Australian pre-schoolers using non-fluoridated dentifrice was higher than in other world regions. Higher parental education level was strongly associated with choosing non-fluoridated toothpaste, which warrants further qualitative analysis to assess determinants for parents' choice of child dentifrice. © 2020 BSPD, IAPD and John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Anna Buckeridge, Nigel King, Robert Anthonappa. Relationships between parental education, choice of child dentifrice, and their children's caries experience. International journal of paediatric dentistry. 2021 Jan;31(1):115-121
PMID: 32815573
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