Assessment of Age of Initiation and Motivation for Oral Hygiene Practice among Children in Ile-Ife, Nigeria: A Preliminary Study Age of initiation and motivation for oral hygiene practice

Abstract

Objective: To assess the age at which parents in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, initiate oral hygiene practices in their children and the social factors that influence the initiation and establishment of these oral hygiene habits

Methods: A cross-sectional study was carried out on 200 mothers who attended Urban Comprehensive Health Center, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Eleyele, Ile-Ife, between February and May 2021, using a two-part structured self-administered questionnaire on mothers who had at least a child above six months of age. The data was analysed using SPSS-IBM software (version 27.0), and the level of significance was inferred at P < 0.05.

Results: Two hundred mothers participated in the study. The mean age of the participants was 35.17 years. Over half, 115(57.5%) of the participants initiated infant oral hygiene in their children, while all the participants initiated traditional toothbrushing in their children, with the mean age of toothbrushing initiation at 21.77 months. A statistically significant association existed between the age of oral hygiene practice initiation and reasons for habit commencement (P < 0.005).

Conclusion: This study showed that the mean age of initiation of oral hygiene practices in the studied population was 21.8 months and sheds light on the factors influencing the commencement of these practices, which include the type of food consumed by the children, presence of new teeth, caries and bad breath