Washington, Feb 1 (IANS) The probability of kids receiving regular dental care is strongly dependent on their parents’ visits to the dentist.
An online report is the first to analyse the relationship between parents’ and children’s dental visits in a nationally representative sample.

“When parents don’t see the dentist, their children are much less likely to see the dentist,” says Inyang Isong, Mass General Hospital for Children (MGHfC) Centre for Child and Adolescent Health Policy, who led the study.

“We also found that the children of parents who have put off their own dental care for financial reasons are more likely to have their care deferred due to cost as well. It looks like strategies to promote oral health should focus on the whole family,” adds Isong.

The study’s authors note that dental caries - tooth decay - is of one of the most prevalent childhood diseases and is particularly common among minority and low-income children.

Previous studies have associated factors including insurance coverage, parents’ income and education, and the availability of dental care in the local community with the likelihood that children will have regular dental visits.

Survey responses including data regarding dental visits for both a child and parent in the same household was available for around 6,100 matched pairs.

Among parents who reported seeing a dentist during the preceding year, 86 percent of children had also seen a dentist; but only 64 percent of the children of parents with no recent dental visit had seen a dentist during the previous 12 months, says a MGHfC release.

In addition, among parents who put off their own dental care because of financial considerations, 27 percent of their children also had dental care deferred. Conversely, only three percent of children whose parents had not put off their own care care had their dental care deferred.

These findings are slated to appear in Paediatrics.