Habitos De La Higiene Oral

Hábitos de higiene oral, clínica dental y el cepillado de dientes entre las poblaciones de clase socioeconómica baja de inmigrantes y nativos.

Introduccion:

The American academy of pediatric dentistry (AAPD) recommended twice daily brushing of children´s teeth, starting from the time of their eruption. A number of recent publications of studies conducted in African countries have shown levels of knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) of oral hygiene to be far below those recommended. While 92% of primary school children in Kenya reported brushing their teeth, 59 % reported using the chewing stick rather than a commercial toothbrush, and only 48 % reported using the shewing stick rather than twice daily, man be a more informative measure of oral hygiene in African countries. Among Nigerian children, 52 % reported brushing at least once daily. in a multinational study 77.3% of 25,760 school children in nine African countries reported brushing their teeth at least once daily.

In an era of high numbers of individuals from African countries establish residence in countries around the world.

Immigrant populations tend to bring to their new home, their cultural beliefs and their knowledge and habits about healthy eating habits. Parental beliefs and attitudes have been shown to play a key role in moderating oral health related behavior in young children, and in determining whether they develop caries. Thus an appreciation of the impact of cultural and ethnic diversity seems important to the understanding of differences in parental attitudes to oral health.

Over the past 30 years, about 45,000 people have immigrated to Israel from Ethiopia . the aim of the current study was to compare oral hygiene habit in preschool children of two low socioeconomic Israeli populations : offspring of immigrants from Ethiopia and offspring of native Israelis.

Materials And Method

This study is part of a larger cross-sectional study, conducted during the years 2005-2008 of the oral hygiene status and needs of children of Ethiopian immigrants in Israel. dental examinations were performed at 21 nursery schools and kindergartens located in low socioeconomic neighborhoods in which at least 25 % of the children were offspring of immigrant from Ethiopia.

A structured questionnaire was distributed by one of the investigators(ED) to parent s who brought their children in the morning to the participating nursery schools and kindergartens . only children who were brought by a parent and who signed an informed consent form were included in the survey. The questionnaire accessed demographic information(children s age , gender and ethnic origin) and 7 questions about their children’s visits to a dentist , the presence of toothbrushes and toothpaste at home, children s frequency of brushing , and the help children received during brushing . parents were informed that there were informed that there were no right or wrong answers.

For purposes of analysis, children were classified into two age groups : younger’s age 18-48 months and older (ages 49-82 months). Frequencies and percentages were calculated for the categorical variables. Frequencies of the categorical variables between pairs of subgroups were compared by the Chi square test (a parametric test) or by the Fisher-irwin exact test (a non parametric test for small samples). The level of significance for all test was 0.05.

The survey was approved by the institutional review board for research on human subjects of the ministry of health.

Results

Parents of 719 children participated in the study. Six parents refused to participate. The population surveyed included 719 children, 382of Ethiopian descent and 337 offspring of native Israeli parents; 322 were classified as younger and 397 as older children.

Younger group (18/48 months)

Fewer than 5% of the Ethiopian and native Israeli parents reported that their children had ever visited a dentist, with no statistically significantly more native Israelis than Ethiopians, reported that children’s had toothbrushes that, all family members owned toothbrushes, that they used toothpaste at home, and that children brushed their children brushed their teeth at least once daily, compared to 65% of the native Israelis.

Older group ( 49 -82 months)

More native Israeli than Ethiopian parents reported that their children had visited a dentist, for both populations , more than 90% of parents reported that their children had toothbrushes. More native Israeli than Ethiopian parent reported that all family members had toothbrushes, that they used toothpaste at home , and that their children brushed their teeth at least once daily.

A higher proportion of older than younger children was reported to have visited a dentist (15 vs 5% for Ethiopian children, and 25vs4 % for the native Israeli children) among native Israeli parents the same percentage , 65 5 reported tooth brushing at least once a day by older as by younger children. Among Ethiopian parents, 45 % reported tooth brushing at least once a day by older children, compared to 30% by younger children.

Discussion

In this study, marked differences were reported in oral hygiene habit of preschool children and dental home between offspring of all living in the same low socioeconomic neighborhoods. This difference is despite the fact the parents of Ethiopian descent had lived at least 20 years in Israel.

Of the Ethiopian parent 15 % compared to 25% of the native Israelis, reported that their children, aged 49 to 82 months , had

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