Responsiveness of parents towards their children’s prime dental visit – a cross sectional study

Aim: To assess parent’s knowledge concerning the timing of the first dental visit of their children, the parent’s attitude towards behaviour modification for their children in the first dental visit and to find out the main reason to convoy the child to the dental clinic among the parents attending to the paediatric dentistry. MATERIALS AND METHOD: A cross-sectional study was done among the parents who brought their children to a paediatric dental clinic, a self- administered questionnaire consisting of 12 items and questionnaires were given separately to the parents to minimize the bias. Responses obtained were tabulated and the results of the questionnaire were expressed as frequency distribution and computed in percentages. RESULTS: Forty-eight per cent of parents expressed that the first dental visit should be at 6 years of age. 60.4% believed that first dental visit is important and 34.7% of the parents stated that child will be uncooperative in the first year and 35.6% parents agreed to promote behaviour guidance during the first dental visit if their children do not have pain, motivation is the best approach tobring the child to the clinic. 77% expressed emergency was the reason to visit the dentist and 69.4% expressed if chief complaint is treated there is no need to visit a dentist. CONCLUSION: Majority of the parents were not aware the exact time for first dental visit due to lack of awareness. Parents disagree with behaviour guidance in the first dental visit; motivation was the best approach to carry the child to the dental clinic and whenever there is an emergency then they visit a dentist. There is no need to visit a dentist if the chief complaint is treated.