Abstract
We conducted research on the actual conditions of the home environment, the dental consciousness of the guardians and analyzed the various factors producing the difference of life style.
Questionnaires were given to 315 of the guardians, consisting of 96.8% of mothers, who children attended four preschool institutions, that is, two kindergartens and two day-nurseries, in a down townor a suburban area, respectively, in Hiroshima. The correlation between the data was analyzed statistically and the results were as follows.
1) The mean number of persons composing a family was 4.38, and the family in the suburb was significantly larger than that downtown (p<0.05). The number of cases of an only child was significantly larger in the day-nursery or in the downtown (p<0.05).
2) Only 4.2% of the guardians visited a dentist for a periodic checkup. Additionally, a guardian with a larger number of children tends to visit a dentist after feeling pain. Though the largest percent of guardians is informed about a dental floss and plaque detectors, a small number of them actually use these instruments.
3) In the oral examination for each preschool child,34.3%, of the children were indicated as having the dental caries. The indication of dental caries was found in many of the children, whose order of birth was more than the third child, or who had more than two brothers or sisters. Bad oral habits showed a tendency to decrease with increasing age. This tendency was found especially with finger sucking (p<0.05).
4) Concerning visits to the dental office for the child,73.8% of the purposes for visiting were for treatment of dental caries and a lower percentage for prevention of them was found. Sixty-one percent of the guardians desired to accompany her child to the treatment chair to be present at the dental treatment. This desire was found particularly with guardians who had a lower age, an only child or a first child.
