Effect of education on the parents’ awareness and attitude to the role of space maintainers in the child’s mouth

Background: Early loss of deciduous teeth can lead to space constraints and malocclusion. One preventive intervention is using space maintainers. This study aimed to examine the effect of educational intervention on parents› awareness and attitude toward using space maintainers in children. Methods: This quasi-experimental interventional study was performed on 200 parents referring to the pediatric ward of Kerman faculty of dentistry. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire collecting demographic information with sections assessing awareness (14 items) and attitude (10 items). An educational pamphlet was used to train the participants. After three weeks, the questionnaire was re-completed by the parents. The data were analyzed using SPSS 26 through paired t-test, independent t-test, analysis of variance, Tukey’s post hoc test, and linear regression. Results: In terms of age, 63.5% of fathers and 81% of mothers participating in this study were between 25 and 40 years old. The mean age of the children was 6.71 years, with a standard deviation of ±1.06. The parents’ awareness score increased by 4.96 post-education compared to pre-education, and the attitude score improved by 7.09. Father’s higher education level (P=0.01), better economic status (P=0.046), and better post-education awareness (P=0.0001) were among the significant factors affecting the improvement of attitude post-education. Conclusion: The present research results indicated that educational intervention significantly improves awareness and attitude (P=0.0001). With an increase in awareness, attitude also became more positive. The results also revealed that education had a greater impact on boosting attitude than awareness.