Improving children's oral hygiene through parental involvement

This study evaluated whether preschool children's oral hygiene would improve, if the parent, after receiving professional instruction, could demonstrate proficient toothbrushing. In the experimental group, twenty-four parents received a clinical demonstration and verbal instruction in the scrub-brush technique. They were asked to demonstrate proficiency in brushing their children's teeth using this technique. In the control group, twenty-six parents received the same brushing instructions, but did not clean their children's teeth. Baseline and four-week follow-up plaque and gingival scores showed improvement only in the plaque score (p less than .05) for the experimental group. Gingival scores were unchanged. These results indicate the advantage of parental participation in their child's dental care, especially in the case of new patients.