Criteria Used by Guardians for Child Dental Clinic Selection

Abstract

A decreasing birth rate and trend toward nuclear family living situations are social phenomena in Japan related to the reduction in total fertility rate to 1.39 in 2011. Situations that demand a dental examination and how to select a dental clinic for children in Japan are unclear issues, with only a few studies reported. We performed a questionnaire-based survey to understand the impression of guardians regarding an ideal pediatric dental clinic in order to provide better pediatric dental care. The subjects were 183 children (age range 3−6 years) who underwent a dental examination in June, 2010,who attended a single kindergarten in Yokosuka City, Kanagawa. The following results were obtained.1.The return rate of the questionnaire was 69.4% (127/183 respondents).2.Twenty-five children (19.7%) attending the kindergarten did not have prior experience with a dental examination or treatment.3.We classified the subjects into 4 clusters by cluster analysis and defined the reason for selection of a dental clinic to each cluster.Our results indicate that information showing the need of periodical dental examinations along with knowledge of the characteristics of each group were effective.