Parental oral health literacy (OHL) may influence children’s oral hygiene behaviors, highlighting the importance of family-centered interventions and oral health education. This study was recently published in BMC Oral Health.
Additionally, characteristics such as parental education and income may affect oral OHL levels, the authors wrote.
“Lower OHL levels were significantly related to higher caries experience, more advanced untreated lesions, and poorer oral hygiene in children, underscoring the importance of caregivers’ understanding and engagement in oral health practices,” wrote the authors, led by Nevra Karamüftüoğlu of Gazi University in Turkey (BMC Oral Health, December 23, 2025).
This study aimed to examine how parental sociodemographic characteristics, oral health-related behaviors, and OHL levels affect the oral health outcomes of children ages 6 to 12 attending a pediatric dentistry clinic. The cross-sectional study was conducted at a private dental health center in Turkey between March 1, 2024, and March 30, 2025, and included 238 parent-child pairs, they wrote.
Parents completed a structured questionnaire collecting sociodemographic and behavioral information and the Turkish Oral Health Literacy Adult Form for Parents (TOHLAT-P), a 27-item tool assessing reading comprehension, numeracy, listening, and decision-making skills. Also, children received standardized intraoral examinations by a calibrated pediatric dentist using disposable instruments under optimal lighting.
Children’s oral hygiene status was significantly associated with several parental factors, including higher education (p = 0.002), employment (p = 0.029), prior oral health education (p = 0.045), regular toothbrushing (p = 0.02), routine dental visits (p < 0.001), and higher TOHLAT-P scores (p < 0.001). Parents with TOHLAT-P scores of 30 or lower were 5.366 times more likely to have children with poor to moderate oral hygiene compared with those scoring 31 or higher (p < 0.001), they wrote.
Good oral hygiene was observed in 89.2% of children whose parents scored 31 or higher on the TOHLAT-P versus 66.7% among those whose parents scored 30 or lower. Similarly, 83.2% of children had good oral hygiene when parents brushed regularly, compared with 70.1% when they did not.
Weak but significant negative correlations were found between parental TOHLAT-P scores and the number of children (r = -0.314, p < 0.01), household size (r = -0.272, p < 0.01), and children’s OHI-S scores (r = -0.300, p < 0.01), indicating that lower parental oral health literacy was associated with poorer child oral hygiene.
However, the study had limitations. The sample consisted only of patients from a dental faculty clinic, so the findings may not be generalizable to families who lack access to dental care, the authors noted.
“Oral health policymakers and public health professionals should prioritize the integration of health literacy frameworks into routine dental care and school-based oral health programs,” they wrote.
