Objective: Identifying children at a very young age at risk for caries has proven difficult, and a simple screening method would be helpful in caries prevention. The purpose of this preliminary study was to assess how parents' oral health questions responses relate to children's caries experience.

Methods: Data were collected via 10-item questionnaires mailed to mothers of children already enrolled in a WIC-based caries study. Out of 176 questionnaires mailed, a total of 100 were returned; these data were linked to caries data. Chi-square analyses were used to assess relationships between mothers' oral health perceptions responses and whether children had either cavitated or non-cavitated caries experience.

Results: Dental examinations were performed on children ranging from 14 to 35 months old (mean age in months=21). For mothers who rated their own dentition as poor, 36% of the children had frank decay upon examination compared to 7% of the children whose parents rated their own dentition as at least fair (p=0.002). For mothers missing two or more teeth because of “cavities”, 25% of their children had frank decay evident compared to 7% of the children whose mothers reported missing only one or no teeth due to “cavities” (p=0.033). With the exception of two other questions that approached statistical significance (0.05 < p < 0.10) - mothers' last dental visit and current caries status, none of the other questions were associated with children's caries experience.

Conclusion: Results suggest that mothers who rated their oral health as ‘poor' or had lost teeth due to caries were more likely to have children with frank decay in early childhood. Further research is needed, but posing such questions may be a simple, cost-effective means of identifying young children at highest risk for caries.

Supported by NIDCR grant R21-DE015008

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