TO ASSESS THE KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICES AMONG THE GYNECOLOGISTS REGARDING THE INFLUENCE OF PERINATAL MATERNAL ORAL HEALTH IN DETERMINING THE FUTURE DENTAL HEALTH OF THE CHILD

Background: Perinatal and infant oral health should be considered as the foundation of Pediatric preventive oral health care. A proper perinatal oral health care guidance provided by Gynecologists during the time of pregnancy can help an expectant mother to improve or maintain good oral health status and thereby reduce the complications that can be associated with poor oral health in the mother and can indirectly dictate the future oral health and general health of her child. Gynecologists who are aware about the infectious nature of the oral microbes and the effect of discrete periods or windows of inoculation should instruct the mother about the higher risk of developing dental caries in their children by the modification of maternal dental flora using proper perinatal preventive programs. Aim:To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Gynecologists of Central Kerala about the importance of early oral health care for children. Materials and methods:A questionnaire based cross sectional survey was conducted among 200 Gynecologists from Ernakulam and Thrissur district, Central Kerala, India. After obtaining the consent and explaining the nature of the study, a single investigator distributed the questionnaire among the randomly selected participants and requested to answer within 15-30 minutes. The answered sheets were collected back on the same day itself. Result: A statistical evaluation using the Chi-square was done to evaluate the homogeneity of the respondents and one way ANOVA to evaluate the influence of study parameters on categorical scale. Mean percentage score of each category was evaluated. The result showed that the Gynecologists had a good attitude towards child oral health related topics but a less score was obtained for the knowledge and practice category. Conclusion:Majority of the participants from the study advocated the need of improving their knowledge regarding the child health related topics in future to fill their knowledge gap so that they can effectively devote time and effort to inspect oral health of the child. Gynecologists preferred CME(Continuing medical education) and their respective journals for the purpose. An improvement in the multidisciplinary approach of Pedodontists was advocated to implement a positive attitude among these contributors so that they can perform preventive measures in the most effective and efficient way to nurture a caries free smile in a childs future.