Abstract
The purpose if this study was to investigate mother' oral health management behavior to their children. Two hundreds sixty seven mothers with elementary school students were surveyed among the residents living of Iksan city, Korea. A questionnaire was constructed and administered to the samples. The research focused in the following items: the subjects' socio-demographic factors such as education level and employment and so on; their knowledge of plaque; the leading causes of caries, regular dental examinations; dental treatment; their interest in their children's dental health; the frequency of the subjects examining their children's teeth; non-cariogenic food preparation, etc. Being based in collected data, mothers' oral health management behavior to their children were analyzed according to maternal socio-demographic factor and result were following. There was a difference in the subjects knowledge of dental plaque in accordance with their employment or unemployment and family income. There was no difference in mother's oral health management behavior to their children according to parents' education level, the subjects' age and family income. Most of mother answered the main reason of dental caries was that their children did not toothbrush their teeth regularly and there was a difference in the understanding of the subjects in accordance with the education level of fathers and family income. The subjects had a low understanding of the effect of preventing caries with the help of fluoride. They didn't have enough understanding of water fluoridation. So it is necessary that active campaigns should be launched to enlighten people in relation to the ways of preventing dental caries with fluoride.