Page 13 - GP Spring 2025

the tastes and preferences that children develop throughout their childhood and going into their adulthood. Furthermore, these factors
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seem the most related to oral health literacy as they have to do with understanding and making informed oral health decisions that could
influence the prevalence of childhood caries in children.

Figure 1 assessed the correlation between REALD-30, DMFT scores, and KAP. As we can see in Figure 1, there was a significant pos-
itive correlation between REALD-30 and KAP, which suggests an association between oral health behavior and oral health literacy.
There was a significant negative correlation between REAL-30 and DMFT scores and between KAP and DMFT scores. This suggests
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that parental guardians with poor oral health behaviors and poor oral health literacy scores had children with more dental caries.
• KAP: Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice of parental guard-
ians regarding their children’s oral health.
• A highly significant moderate positive correlation was ob-
served between REALD-30 and KAP (r = 0.523, P < 0.001).
This suggests an association between oral health behavior
and oral health literacy.
• There was a highly significant moderate negative correla-
tion between REALD-30 and DMFT scores (r = -0.552, P <
0.001) and between KAP and DMFT scores (r = -0.500, P <
0.001). This suggests that parental guardians with poor oral
health behaviors and literacy scores had children with more
Figure 1. dental caries.
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While there were many results found in this study, here are the main takeaways:
 There is an association between dental caries and parental guardian socio-demographic factors, feeding practices, attributes,
behaviors, oral health, attitudes, knowledge and beliefs. 3
 There was an association between parental guardian behavior, oral health literacy and children’s caries experience. (as noted
in Figure 1).
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 Higher education level of the parental guardian had a positive impact on oral health-related quality of life.
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Discussion: While various factors were analyzed, the focus of the study came from two different implications. The first implication
was that parental guardian behaviors, knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and education are associated with oral health literacy. The second
implication was that parental guardians are responsible for making oral health decisions for children and that the oral health of deciduous
teeth affect the oral health of permanent teeth.
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While the study observed an association between dental caries and parental guardian socio-demographic factors, feeding practices,
attributes, behaviors, oral health status, attitudes, knowledge and beliefs, there was more research on parental guardian factors such as
social determinants, including socioeconomic status and education, associated with childhood caries than on factors such as parenting
behaviors, knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes. It was interpreted that these parental guardian factors can influence a parental guardian’s
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role in contributing to childhood caries in the pediatric population, but much more research needs to be done on these factors and how
these factors connect to one another. The study observed there was an association between parental guardian behavior, oral health liter-
acy and children’s caries experience. It was interpreted that children born to parental guardians with poor oral health behavior and poor
oral health literacy scores had more caries. Additionally, the study found that a higher education level of the parental guardian had a
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positive impact on oral health-related quality of life. This suggests a connection between education and oral health-related quality of
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life, indicating that the higher the education level of a parental guardian, the more positive the impact on oral health-related quality of
life, such as children having fewer caries.
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Clinical Relevance: This
review demonstrates a po-
tential association between
parental guardian oral health
literacy and childhood caries.
The 17-year-old patient on
whom the study was based
still has several decayed
teeth and very poor oral hy-
giene. Please see the relevant
clinical images in Figure 2
and the radiographic images
in Figures 3 and 4.

Figure 2. Clinical images of a 17-year-old patient.
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