QUALIDADE DE VIDA E PRÁTICAS DOS PAIS NA HIGIENE BUCAL DE SEUS FILHOS.

Abstract

A poor oral health can change children and their families lives, influencing their chewing ability, sleep, school performance, social interaction and self-esteem, besides impacting their quality of life. The dissertation was built as an article.The first article deals with an integrative review of literature and aimed to analyze the factors that can influence the quality of life related to oral health in preschool children. The search was conducted at the National Library of Medicine (PubMed) and Biblioteca Virtual em Saúde (BVS) and published from 2004 to 2014. The 17 selected studies were cross-sectional, in which, four of them were population-based. All of them used the Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS) as a tool for evaluating the quality of life related to oral health. Among oral disorders that had negative impact on quality of life related to oral health of the child and his(her) family, the decay appeared in nine articles; dental trauma in three ones and badocclusion in one. Other factors also had a negative association related to the quality of life related to oral health of preschool children and their parents: low family income, low education, as well as younger parents and toothache. The second article aimed to investigate the relationship between quality of life and parents practices related to their children oral health during preschool stage. It is a cross-sectional study, conducted with 132 parents of 2 to 5 years old children, registered in a preschool, located in the northern state of Goias. Their parents were asked to complete the sociodemographic form, the ECOHIS questionnaire and a structured questionnaire, that contained some specific and objective questions about parental practices related to their children oral health. Statistical analysis were performed using Qui Quadrado, Exato de Fisher, Sperman s de Mann-Whitney. Most of the sample were made up of mothers (91.7%) with age average of 29.9 years old, elementary and high school (92.4%), familiar income of R$ 1.220.00. Most parents reported that their children have their teeth brushed less than three times a day (68.2%), they use toothbrush and children s toothpaste (92.3% and 62.9% respectively), they do not use baby bottle to sleep (61.4%) and they began to brush their children s teeth before they were one year old (65.2%). The total average score ECOHIS was 5.3, representing a weak impact of oral health on children and families quality of life.Children that use a baby bottle at night and do not brush their teeth before going to bed, children that brush their own teeth, use adult s toothpaste, have their teeth brushed less than three times a day and started to brush their teeth after 1 year old, have a worse quality of life related to oral health. Based on the results found, it is necessary to set up public health programs that strengthen basic care with actions that aim to provide education in oral health, as well as facilitate the access of children and their parents to dental services.