Impact of Oral Health Literacy on the Clinical Consequences of Untreated Dental Caries in Preschool Children.

To evaluate the association between parental oral health literacy (OHL) and untreated early childhood caries and its clinical consequences in children. Population-based, cross-sectional study was conducted with 449 parent-preschooler dyads (four-to-six-year-olds) in Ribeirão das Neves, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Parents answered a socioeconomic questionnaire and the Brazilian version of the Hong Kong Oral Health Literacy Assessment Task for Paediatric Dentistry (BOHLAT-P), which measures parental OHL in pediatric dentistry. Preschoolers were examined by two calibrated dentists for the diagnosis of caries (ICDASepi-merged) and its clinical consequences: visible pulp; oral mucosa ulceration due to root fragments; fistula; and abscess (pufa). Data were submitted to univariable and multivariable logistic regression analyses (<0.05). A multivariable model that adjusted for socioeconomic status showed that parental OHL was not associated with untreated dental caries (=0.618). Parents with lower OHL had a greater odds of having children with at least one clinical consequence of untreated dental caries (odds ratio equals 0.94; 95 percent confidence interval equals 0.89 to 0.98) than parents with higher OHL. Low parental OHL appears to impact the occurrence of at least one clinical consequence of untreated dental caries in children but not in the simple presence of untreated dental caries.