Knowledge and practices regarding oral hygiene among mothers of under five children

Introduction: Children are major consumers of health; they are the wealth of tomorrow. Oral hygiene is practiced every morning involving rubbing of the hard and soft palate, upper and lower gums, inner aspects of cheek, under surface and over surface of tongue and the teeth with or without tooth powder or paste probably. Children under the age of five years generally spend most of their time with parents and guardians, especially mothers, even when they attend preschool or nurseries. Poor knowledge and practices of parents towards oral health of infants and young children are associated with increase caries prevalence. Methodology: In this Descriptive research design, 150 mothers of under five children were selected as a sample for the study by using Non- Probability sampling – convenient sampling technique. The data was collected by using structured knowledge Questionnaire to assess the knowledge and check list to practices on oral hygiene among mothers of under five children. Data analysis was performed by descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. SPSS-17 software was used and p value less than 0.05 were considered significant. Result: Majority 52.0% mother of under five children had good level of knowledge, 38.0% mothers of under five children had fair level of knowledge, 6.7% mothers of under five children had excellent level of knowledge and only 3.3% mothers of under five children had poor level of knowledge regarding oral hygiene of their under five children. Majority 68.7% mothers of under five children had followed neutral practices, 22.0% mothers had followed positive practices and only 9.3%mothers of under five children had followed negative practices regarding oral hygiene of their under five children. The obtained value (0.127) shows that there is positive correlation between knowledge and practice indicating that the knowledge level increases then the practices also increases. Discussion: Out of 150 mothers, 52.0% mother of under five children had good level of knowledge and only 22.0% mothers had followed positive practices, 68.7% mothers of under five children had followed neutral practices. Informational booklet on Oral Hygiene was provided to the Mothers of under five children to increase the knowledge and practices on Oral hygiene.