Role of Parents

Teaching the importance of Oral Health- Teacher or Parent responsibility

School-going children are almost totally dependent on their parents or school teachers-for understanding and motivation to help them participate in preventive dentistry or any such oral health programmes.

Many teachers believe that oral health awareness should be the responsibility of parents and dental health professionals - not teachers. A child that is raised in a home where the parents are subject to cultural, technical, economic, and educational disadvantages, often reflects these shortcomings through poor oral as well as general health.

Even with highly motivated parents,accurate knowledge about oral health is often minimal . In addition, behavioral change can be more difficult to influence at home under parental guidance than under the tutelage of the teacher. In other words,in lot of cases the parents themselves do not know how to help their children or themselves and need the support of a school-based oral health programme.

Parent participation

Whenever possible, the parent must be included in a school-based oral health programme. One or both of the parents can provide strong positive reinforcement either through role modeling or verbal messages that support the attitudinal and behavioral changes promulgated in the school.

Ideally, parent education should parallel child education; in this way parents can learn how to improve their own oral health as well as guide their children.