Abstract & Overview
Relevance of the topic. Dental change is the period when a child looses milk teeth and there appear permanent teeth. This period starts approximately from 6 years and lasts 12 years inclusive, but it is not a particular time, because every child teeth may start to fall earlier and later. During this period, the child needs a particular care of dental hygiene because enamel is not fully developed yet and therefore its better adhesion of plaque, which develops decay. Thus, both children and parents with the help of dental hygienists, should take care of appropriate children dental hygiene during dental change period, because most children are not mature enough to be responsible for their dental hygiene care and do not know how to properly and efficiently to do that. Dental hygienist should properly instruct parents how to clean the children teeth. The hygienist should explain to both parents and children how to clean teeth, how many times a day to clean them, and how to select the appropriate individual dental hygiene measures. Object of the final work - children dental hygiene during dental change period. The aim - to evaluate the individual children dental hygiene during dental change period. Objectives: 1. To assess individual children dental hygiene during dental change period using OHI – s index for quality; 2. To evaluate children knowledge about individual children dental hygiene using a structured interview; 3. Polls way to assess parental knowledge about children dental hygiene during dental change period. The research results led to the following conclusions: 1. The survey of all investigative and their parents revealed that their knowledge about individual children dental hygiene during dental change period is not entirely sufficient and fair. Parents are tending to leave the responsibility for children for their own dental care. When buying toothpaste for children parents do not pay attention to the amount of fluoride in it, do not know why fluoride is needed for children‘s teeth. That may result fluorine or demineralization of children‘s teeth. Parents do not pay attention how long the toothbrush is used as well. The test revealed that 3 out of 4 parents lead children to the dental office for dental treatment. 2. The survey of children revealed that their knowledge of individual dental hygiene is not fair and sufficient. Children do not know how to clean the teeth properly: how many times a day to clean them, what movements and when to use. All the children said that their parents taught to brush their teeth. Some children said that they had heard something from school friends or dentist / dental hygienist. Interviewed children, they confirmed that brushed their teeth less than once a day, but they said it last 2 minutes. Also part of the children confirmed that they are interesting to see how their parents brushed their teeth, so this suggests that parents' dental hygiene affects their children dental hygiene. 3. The survey of all patients revealed that their dental hygiene is sufficient. It is influenced by children lack of motivation to look after the oral cavity and teeth, lack of adequate knowledge of how to do this, and exclusion of measures of interdentally cleaning. This is confirmed by the investigated dental hygiene indices: the first patient – 2.3 points (satisfactory), the second patient – 2.3 points (satisfactory), the third patient – 1.83 (satisfactory) and the fourth – 1.33 (satisfactory). Research methods: 1. Analysis of the literature 2. Qualitative research: a case of study Key words: children’s; dental hygiene; dental change period.