Fostering Bright Smile: An Exploration of Oral Health Factors Affecting the Role of Parents of Preschoolers

This study determined the oral health factors affecting preschoolers and the role of parents in prevention. Particularly, it focused to all the 23 Child Care Development Centers in San Manuel, Pangasinan. The study used descriptive method of research and included 230 parents from 23 centers as respondents. It used percentage, frequency counts, weighted mean, and Pearson r product moment coefficient of correlation through SPSS 26 in its statistical treatment. Further, the study found out that respondent-parents are predominantly females, 185 or 80.4 percent, 106 or 46.1 percent belong to ages 20-21, 183 or 79.6 percent are Roman Catholic. They are mostly married, 169 or 73.5 percent, high school graduate with 155 of them or 67.4 percent, and 205 of them or 89.1 percent are housewife or househusband. Majority of the respondents have 5,000 and below income, there are 166 of them or 72.2 percent. They belong to a nuclear type of family, 184 of them or 80 percent, and have 4-5 members in the family. The respondents agree that the dental health, oral hygiene, dietary habits, education and awareness, and collaboration with healthcare providers are oral health factors highly affecting preschoolers. Further, respondents neither agree nor disagree that the parental attitudes and beliefs, and cultural influences are oral health factors affecting preschoolers. There is a significant relationship between the factors affecting the oral health practices among parents of preschool children and the respondents’ profile variables. Particularly between the factors on dental health, oral hygiene, dietary habits, parental attitudes and beliefs, cultural influences, and education and awareness, and the profile variables, sex, age, highest educational attainment, income, and number of family members.