Believe the able not the label: correlation between parental perception about epilepsy and oral health of the child

Background: Childhood epilepsy may intrude the parent’s social and familial life thus building stress and anxiety in them. Parental behaviour, their characteristics and beliefs are important considerations for maintaining the child’s physical health, cognitive health and oral health. Thus the objective of the study was to assess parent’s knowledge and attitude about epilepsy and oral health of their child and to obtain co-relation with oral health status of the child.
Materials and Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted in the outpatient department of Paediatric Dentistry which included 65 children suffering with epilepsy (age group 1- 14yrs) and their respective parents. A questionnaire was administered to the parents regarding knowledge and attitude of parents towards the epilepsy and oral health care of children. The oral health characteristic of children was recorded using DMFT index for caries prevalence, oral hygiene index (OHI) and Gingival index for gingival health.
Results: A positive correlation was obtained between the Parental knowledge regarding Epilepsy and their attitude towards Epilepsy. Negative correlation was present between the Parental Knowledge and Attitude about Epilepsy with the Parental knowledge about Oral Health Status of the patient.
Conclusion: Though parents had good knowledge and attitude about epilepsy, there is a dental neglect towards their children. Therefore there is a greater need to bring in the awareness among parents and instil positive dental attitude to maintain optimum oral health as poor oral health can inturn affect general health, growth and well being of the child.