Oral health knowledge, awareness and attitude of parents towards root canal treatment of primary teeth in Mangalore a survey

Introduction: Dental caries is one among the major health problem affecting 60 to 90% of school children. Early and timely intervention is required to prevent the occurrence of dental caries. It is important that primary dentition is maintained in the dental arch provided it can be restored to function and remain free from disease. The purpose of this study is to explore the dental health knowledge, awareness and attitude of patient’s parents towards pulp therapy of primary teeth. Aim: to access dental health knowledge, awareness and attitude of patients parents towards pulp therapy of primary teeth. Material and Methods: it’s a time bound study which would be conducted for a period of 3 months. The study will be conducted in department of pedodontics and preventive dentistry ajids Mangalore. All the parents of child patients requiring pulp treatment procedure visiting the dental opd over this time period will be personally interviewed with a questionnaire. Their response will be computed and the results will be statistically analysed. Results: in this study pain was the prime reason for the population (59.7%) to make their 1st dental visit. Parents felt the need to save the pulpally involved primary teeth and there was willingness to save the pulpally involved primary teeth 95.5%, very less 4.5% felt it was not required to save the primary teeth as it will be replaced by permanent successors. Conclusion: a norm of regular semi-annual/annual dental check-up has to be set up as the parents get there child to dental clinic when the disease is advanced, hence we need to create awareness among the population about the significance of maintaining a healthy primary dentition.