Mothers’ knowledge about fluoride therapy and fissu re sealants

BACKGROUND AND AIM:Increased dental caries and dental lesions have made preventive measures, especially amongchildren, inevitable. This study investigated elementary schoolgirls’ mothers’ level of knowledge on preventivemethods against dental caries.METHODS:In this cross-sectional study, mothers of 250 schoolgirls were randomly selected from five regions ofTehran, Iran. Their knowledge about fissure sealanttherapy and fluoride therapy was evaluated using aquestionnaire.Data was analyzed by analysis of variance and independent t-tests in SPSS.RESULTS:Mothers’ knowledge about fissure sealant therapy was lower than fluoride therapy. Very low, low, andmoderate levels of knowledge were detected among nearly a quarter, 47.5%, and 22.6% of the participants,respectively. Only 5.4% of the subjects had acceptable level of knowledge on preventive dentistry methods. There weresignificant correlations between mothers' level ofknowledge and their education level and occupational status.CONCLUSIONS:Educated mothers and working mothers had greater knowledge than did housewives. Dentists have acrucial role in increasing mothers' knowledge.