Abstract
This study was conducted to confirm the knowledge of young children's parents with respect to an incremental dental care program and water fluoridation. The research was intended to set the educational purposes of these two programs and to arrange the educational contents. A survey was conducted on 1,436 young children's parents to find whether they recognized the primary cause of the extraction of deciduous teeth, the result of advancement of caries on deciduous teeth, and/or the early treatment need for the deciduous teeth; whether they practiced the incremental oral health care; and whether they agreed with the performance of the incremental oral health care program and the incremental oral health care program by public health center and/or the performance of the water fluoridation. The results were as follows; 1. The ratio of the young children's parents recognizing the primary cause of the extraction of deciduous teeth and that of the young children's parents recognizing the result of advancement of caries on deciduous teeth were 84.9% and 81.8% respectively. Therefore, the young children's parents should be given information on the fact that the primary cause of the extraction of deciduous teeth is the result of caries on deciduous teeth. Education on the result of advancement of caries on deciduous teeth should be clearly provided to the parents. 2. Since 3 out of 10 young children's parents did not recognize the fact that the early caries of deciduous teeth need to be treated, the treatment need for the early caries of deciduous teeth must be clearly educated to them. 3. Because 5 out of 10 young children's parents practice the incremental oral health care, all young children' s parents should be given education encouraging the practice of the incremental oral health care. 4. All the young children's parents agreed with the planning and performance of the incremental oral health care program as a legal institution. 5. Since the ratio of young children' s parents agreeing with the performance of the incremental oral health care program was very low, the infant oral health care program by public health centers should be developed in consistency in order to educate the reasonability of the program and to have young children' s parents rely on the public health centers program. 6. Water fluoridation is effective in preventing caries in the primary dentition, thus extending the life of the deciduous teeth and minimizing the need of caries treatment for infants. As a result, the national oral health insurance fee would decrease. 87.4% of the young children's parents who realized the aforementioned facts by reading the survey questionnaires agreed with the performance of water fluoridation.