The relationship between parenting styles, child's dental anxiety and oral health status

The impact of parenting styles on child's dental anxiety and oral/dental health is an emerging topic. The number of studies on this subject in our country is quite limited. In our study, we evaluated the effect of parenting styles on the oral/dental health and dental anxiety of children aged 3-12 years who applied to the Faculty of Dentistry of Uşak University, and the data of 524 children and their parents were examined. Children were examined under 2 age groups: 3-6 and 7-12. Parenting styles were evaluated by the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire, child's dental anxiety was evaluated by the Modified Yale Preoperative Anxiety Scale and heart rate measurement in all children, by the Modified Child Dental Anxiety Scale (faces version) in the 3-6 age group, by the Dental Subscale of the Children's Fear Survey Schedule in the 7-12 age group, and oral health was recorded with the indices: dft/DMFT, ICDAS, plaque index and gingival index. In the sample, 97.7% had a democratic parenting style. It was found that permissive parenting was applied to boys more than girls, and children with permissive parents had higher anxiety than those with democratic parents (p=0.006 and p=0.041). Democratic parents' control over their child's development of positive eating habits was found to be higher than permissive parents' (p=0.029). While it was determined that the parenting style influenced the child's dental anxiety, it was not found to have a direct effect on oral health, but it was found to influence oral health habits. More studies are needed on the effect of parenting style on the child's dental anxiety and oral health.