Abstract
Objectives : This research analyzed the general characteristics that closely affect the children's dental health and the mothers' dental health knowledge and dental health behavior to identify the correlation of the latter with the status of children's dental health in order to provide the basic data for the development of dental health business that would target children. Methods : Research subjects were selected arbitrarily from three nursery schools located in Busan metropolitan city, targeting 186 children between the ages of four to six and their mothers. The children were subjected to dental Inspection, and the status of their dental caries was studied whereas the mothers were subjected to the surveys on the general characteristics, dental health knowledge and dental health behavior. Results : 1. Level of mothers' dental health knowledge is higher when the mothers' educational level is higher(p=0.02) and when the household's monthly income is higher(p=0.009). 2. When the level of mothers' dental health knowledge is higher, children tended to brush their toothbrushing using proper method(p=0.025). Moreover, when the level of mothers' dental health knowledge is higher, they tended to take their children to dental clinic mostly for preventive measures than for treating cavity(p=0.023). 3. When the level of mothers' dental health knowledge is higher, children's dmft index was significantly low(p=0.02). When the mothers use fluoride-containing toothpaste, children's children' dmft index was even lower(p=0.02). 4. As the children tended to brush their teeth more often, dmft index was lower(p=0.003). When the reason that the children visited dental clinic was more to prevent, than to treat cavity, dmft index was even lower(p=0.000) Conclusions : When the above mentioned results are summarized, it is possible to know that the mothers' dental health knowledge and dental health behavior significantly affect children's dental health. Accordingly, it is necessary to develop maternal and child dental health program that factors in both the mothers and children in order to prevent children's dental caries and to increase their dental health, and continued care is required to discover and treat dental caries early on.