Abstract
Children's oral health is the foundation on which preventive education and dental care must be built to increase the opportunity for life-time freedom from preventable oral diseases. The purpose of this study was to assess the comprehension of Saudi parents towards the use of fluoride and fissure sealants, and to determine the factors that influence their comprehension. This was a cross-sectional study of Saudi parents. A self-administered questionnaire was collected from 206 parents of outpatients attending the pediatric dentistry clinic of King Saud University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In addition to the demographic questions, we investigated the knowledge and attitude of Saudi parents toward their children's use of fluoride and fissure sealants. In the present study, most of the parents a high-school education. Most of the parents (68.4%) had a favorable attitude toward the use of fluoridated gels for their children, while only 39.8% had a positive opinion regarding fluoridated water. The satisfaction levels were very high regarding fluoridated mouth rinses and fluoridated gels (69.4% and 68.4%, respectively). Satisfaction with fissure sealant was split almost equally (55.3% were "pleased" and 44.7% "not pleased"). The most important source of parental oral health knowledge was dentists (82%). The present study found that parents have a low opinion of fluoride and fissure sealants for their children. Therefore, greater effort should be made by professional organizations and government agencies to inform parents of the benefits of sealants and fluoridated products to prevent dental caries in children.