Parental acceptance of dental treatment with SDF in children with CP

This study aims to evaluate parental acceptance of dental treatment with silver diamine fluoride (SDF) in children with cerebral palsy (CP).

The present study is a case-control study with 80 children in the age range of 6-11 years. Group I consisted of children diagnosed with CP and Group II consisted of children without any Special Health Care Needs and systemic conditions. Preoperative and postoperative behavior assessment was done using Frankl's behavior Rating Scale. 38 % SDF application was done in any one primary molar with occlusal dentinal caries. A well-designed validated structured questionnaire with 10 questions was developed to assess the parental acceptance of dental treatment with SDF. The questionnaire comprised 10 close-ended questions with subdivisions on socio-demographic details, the reason for the previous and current dental visit, and acceptance of dental treatment with SDF. The data were analyzed using SPSS (version 26, IBM, Chicago, USA). Continuous variables were expressed as mean ± standard deviation (M ± SD). Categorical variables were expressed as frequency (n) and percentage (%). The chi-square test was used for qualitative analysis. The level of significance was set at 5%.

The number of children showing positive behavior on Frankl's behavior Rating Scale increased from 55% to 70% after dental treatment with SDF and this difference was statistically significant in Group I (p-value < 0.001). 87.5% of parents in Group I had accepted the discoloration caused after dental treatment with SDF compared to 80% in Group II. In Group I, 95% of parents agreed strongly, while in Group II, 82.5% agreed strongly that SDF can be done on un-cooperative and special health care needs children. This difference in agreement seen between parents of Group I and Group II was found to be statistically significant (p-value = 0.02). Also, the acceptance of SDF was found to be higher in parents who were educationally more qualified in Group I. This difference in the acceptance level of SDF seen based on the educational status of parents was statistically significant (p-value < 0.001).

Parental acceptance of SDF for dental treatment was higher in Group I (children with CP) as a greater number of parents accepted dental treatment despite discoloration with the modality being noninvasive and less time-consuming. Improved behavior rating was observed among children in both groups after dental treatment with SDF.