Parental awareness, habits, and social factors and their relationship to baby bottle tooth decay.

The general objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between parental awareness, habits, and social factors in a particular parent population and the occurrence of baby bottle tooth decay (BBTD) in their children. The sample consisted of Hispanic, Black, and White families and included 100 parents with 100 children from the Pediatric Clinic and the Pediatric Dentistry Clinic at Houston Medical Center, University of Texas, Houston. Questionnaires including information related to demographic data, educational level, marital status, baby care, and knowledge and beliefs about BBTD were completed by the parents. Each child was examined with mouth mirror and tongue blade to determine the presence of BBTD. Overall, 19 of the children were found to have BBTD. The racial distribution of the children with and without BBTD was statistically significant (P = 0.03) with the Hispanic population being over-represented in the BBTD group (72.2% versus 37.0%) and Blacks under-represented (16.2% versus 50.6%). The ages at which babies with BBTD were weaned from the bottle were significantly (P < 0.001) higher than those with no BBTD, and those weaned after 14 months of age were more likely to have BBTD. The percentage of babies with BBTD weaned from the bottle after 14 months old was higher (36.8%) than babies without the condition (26.5%). Awareness of BBTD was generally lower among parents of the BBTD children than parents of children without BBTD, as reflected by the feeding patterns of their children and their responses to questions dealing with their knowledge of BBTD.