Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Knowledge of mothers about use of fissure sealant therapy and professional fluoride therapy among children in Saudi Arabia

M Zakirulla , Malaz M Mustafa, K S Ravi, Yomna S Alwabel, Manal A Aldayel, Wafa'a S Alshareef

Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontic Sciences, College of Dentistry, King Khalid University, Abha, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia;

For correspondence:- M Zakirulla Email: drzak786@gmail.com Tel:+6617248028

Accepted: 19 September 2019 Published: 31 October 2019

Citation: Zakirulla M, Mustafa MM, Ravi KS, Alwabel YS, Aldayel MA, Alshareef WS. Knowledge of mothers about use of fissure sealant therapy and professional fluoride therapy among children in Saudi Arabia. Trop J Pharm Res 2019; 18(10):2189-2195 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v18i10.27

© 2019 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: To evaluate mothers’ knowledge of the use of fissure sealant (FS) and topical fluoride (TF) therapy among children aged between 7 to 12 years in Saudi Arabia.

Methods: In this cross-sectional study, participants (n = 350) were selected based on simple random sampling method from the mothers’ of children aged from 7 to 12 years old, attending outpatient pediatric dental clinics in College of Dentistry King Khalid University, Abha, Saudi Arabia.

Results: The age group of mothers included are as follows: 31.7 % in 20 - 30 years age group, 53.1 % in 31 - 40 years age range, and 15.1 % in 41 - 50 years. On FS therapy benefits in the prevention of caries in children, 22 % responded that it was beneficial. When participants were asked regarding FS wearing out easily after application on the tooth, 8 % agreed while 13.4 % disagreed. A majority of mothers (40.9 %) agreed that TF therapy prevents caries, while 47.7 % stated that they brush twice daily with fluoride toothpaste. The mothers that disagreed that fluoride gel is recommended only for children, not for adults were 32.9 %. When the mothers were asked about the benefit of fluoride if its cost is taken into consideration, 46.6 % disagreed that fluoride gel was worth its cost, while 22.3 % took the opposite view.

Conclusion: Positive knowledge of FS and TF therapy have been observed among mothers. However, mothers demonstrated greater positive knowledge of TF therapy than FS therapy.

Keywords: Motherâ€™s knowledge, Fissure sealant therapy, Topical fluoride therapy, Oral health, Dental caries