Parental preferences for dental caries treatment in preschool children according to socio-demographic conditions and beliefs about the primary dentition

Aim To assess parental preferences for dental caries treatment and its association with socio-demographic conditions and beliefs about the primary dentition. Methods Study design: Cross-sectional study. This study was conducted among 512 parents of 2- to 5-year-old children in the State of Tocantins, in the North Region of Brazil. A self-administered questionnaire on preferences for dental caries treatment, sociodemographic conditions and beliefs about the primary dentition was responded by parents considering two hypothetical clinical scenarios: if their child had one or more asymptomatic caries lesions (without pain), one or more symptomatic caries lesions (toothache). Poisson regression models fitted the association between explanatory variables and the preference to conservative interventions. Results A non-negligible proportion of parents prefer nonconservative dental treatments for their children. In both clinical scenarios, older and more schooled mothers were significantly (PR=0.93, p=0.047 for the symptomatic scenario and PR=0.86; for tooth extraction. education level, as well as on beliefs about the primary dentition.