PARENTAL AWARENESS OF ORAL HEALTH AND ORAL HEALTH RELATED BEHAVIOUR OF CHILDREN RECEIVING CANCER TREATMENT

Priyanka Bhojane*, Ankur Jain, Rinky Sisodia, Satish Maran, Anaya Kulkarni and Krishna Sagar

ABSTRACT

Background: Amongst the patients with cancer, many oral and dental conditions can arise, either due to direct effect of the cancer or as a result of the treatment. The children need supervised oral care so as to prevent or control the complications arising as a consequence of cancer treatment. Parental awareness towards the oral health and their oral well-being practices have a direct effect on the oral health of their children. Aim: To assess the parental awareness of oral health and oral health related behaviour of children receiving cancer treatment. Methodology: Study included 80 parents of the children undergoing cancer treatment. The awareness was assessed using a validated and reliable self-administered questionnaire containing 27 items. Statistical analysis of the data was done using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) 21.0 version, IBM, Chicago. Results: Striking results revealed that more than 50% parents were unaware of the effect of cancer and cancer treatment on oral health. Seventy seven percent parents did not receive any oral health information from the medical staff. Child of 68.8% parents had never visited dental clinic. Fluoride application had been done on dentition of only 1 child. Age and gender of the parents was found to have no significant association with the level of awareness towards oral health of their child. Conclusion: There is lack of awareness and appropriate practices towards oral health amongst the parents of the children with cancer undergoing cancer treatment.

Keywords: Parental Awareness, Self-Administered Questionnaire, Cancer Treatment, Childhood Cancer, Oral Health.