An investigation of the association between parenting style and child’s dental caries: a cross-sectional study

To investigate the association between parenting style and child's dental caries. Parents presenting with their children to the Department of Pediatric Dentistry at Tufts University School of Dental Medicine for an initial exam or re-care appointment completed a demographic survey and the parenting styles and dimensions questionnaire. Recruitment of subjects started in May 2019 and ended in February of 2020. Child's decayed, missing, and filled teeth (dmft) index, diet score, sex, and age were recorded, as were parent's race, education level, and form of payment. Adjustment for confounders was done using multivariable negative binomial regression. The sample size was 210 parent/child dyads. In the multivariable analysis, parenting style and child's dmft were not significantly associated (p > 0.05). Parents with an education level less than high school (p = 0.02) and at the high school graduate level (p = 0.008) were significantly associated with children who had higher dmft, compared to parents with a college degree or higher. Children with excellent diet scores had significantly lower dmft than children with a diet score in the "needs improvement" category (p = 0.003). There was no significant evidence that parenting style is associated with child's dental caries. Parent's education level and child's diet score were significantly associated with child's dmft, less than high school (p = 0.02) and at the level of high school graduate (p = 0.008). Pediatric dental professionals should be aware of these risk indicators.