A comparison of perceived and actual dental needs of a select group of children in Texas.

Dental caries (DMFS) evaluations were made for 150 children in Grades 2 to 7. Three months later, a trained interviewer questioned 120 children from 100 families to determine atitudes toward oral hygiene and dental health on the part of (a) the child, (b) the parent, along with (c) the child's perception of the parent's attitude, and (d) the parent's perception of the child's attitude. Evaluation of the perceived attitudes toward oral hygiene revealed a statistically significant correlation between the child's attitude and the degree of dental health as well as between the attitudes of child and parent. Conclusions were: (1) parents were not accurate in their perception of the dental health habits of their children, (2) children were not performing acceptable routine oral hygiene procedures, (3) children accurately perceived the attitudes of their parents toward dental health, and (4) children's actual dental health behavior as manifested by dental health status was related to the attitudes of their parents.