IMPACT OF EARLY CHILDHOOD CARIES ON QUALITY OF LIFE IN 3 - 5 YEARS OLD CHILDREN AND THEIR PARENTS - A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY

Abstract

Dental pain impacts the pleasant lifestyles of an adult hindering their social life and also traumatizes their every day routine. Even though it has been found that neonates and infants have a high pain threshold naturally, dental pain in a child definitely affects his or her quality of life. The objective and aim of this study is to enumerate the problems faced by the parents and the children with ECC which thereby affects their quality of life. The study consisted of 200 children-parent pairs. A standardized questionnaire containing 10 questions for parents and 9 questions for the children was used. The questionnaire used was the Michigan Oral Health related Quality of Life scale. 75% of the children had pain and discomfort; 68% of them had disturbed sleep; 61 % of the children were unable to play joyfully. Regarding the QOL of the parents, 65% had problems during work; 65% had disturbed sleep and 40% of them had expenditure issues because of early childhood caries in their wards.Thus children with early childhood caries have a poor quality of life with various problems hindering their daily routine
Parents of such children also suffer with various issues affecting their quality of life.