| Abstract [eng] |
Relevance of the problem: parental cooperation and understanding of certain aspects of children's dentition type and treatment is essential for a safe orthodontic treatment. Children‘s orthodontic appliances require more attentive care and hygiene during treatment. For children and adolescents, it may be too difficult to meet all the challenges of orthodontic treatment on their own, which makes the role of the parents important and necessary. Aim: to assess parental knowledge regarding their children‘s dentition type and condition, orthodontic appliances in use and main treatment goals. Material and methods: this study was conducted with parents of children undergoing orthodontic treatment at Vilnius University Hospital Žalgiris Clinic. A questionnaire was designed to find out parents‘ views on orthodontic treatment, their knowledge of the physiological and their children‘s dentition, the orthodontic appliances in use and main treatment goals. The subjective data of the subjects were compared with the objective opinion of the orthodontist and the results of the comparison were marked on the same questionnaire without any identifying marks. SPSS 29.0 and MS Excel were used for statistical analysis of the data. Descriptive statistics, Student's t-test, One-Way ANOVA and χ2 (chi-squared) test were used. Statistical significance level – p<0,05. Results: 121 respondents took part in the study, 88 of whom were women and 33 were men. In the theoretical part of the survey, parents‘ knowledge of children‘s dentition characteristics was satisfactory. In this part, 63.5±15.14 pct. of all answers were correct. Parents were more accurate in the individual clinical case questions, scoring 72.86±12.57 pct. The overall result of both parts of the survey was that 66.62±11 pct. of all questions were answered correctly. There was a statistically significant difference in the level of knowledge between males and females (p=0.003), with mothers demonstrating a greater knowledge of their children's dentition and treatment. Conclusions: parental knowledge regarding their children‘s dentition type and condition, orthodontic appliances in use and main treatment goals is average, with a poor understanding of appliance care and treatment goals. Mothers' knowledge is statistically significantly better than fathers'. |
