Impact of a Dental Storybook on Parents’ Knowledge of Children’s Oral Health: A Randomized Controlled Trial

PURPOSE: To evaluate the effectiveness of a dental storybook on parents’ knowledge about oral health of their children and to assess their perception of its effect in reducing dental anxiety levels among their children, as well as improving their oral health knowledge. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This was a two-arm parallel, single-blind, randomized controlled trial (RCT) which was performed at the pediatric dental clinics in the Dental University Hospital, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Parents of 88 children (6–8 years old) were included in the present study. Parents and their children were randomly divided into two groups as follows: the intervention group (received the storybook and verbal oral hygiene instructions) and the control group (only received verbal oral hygiene instructions; same information included in the book). Three dental visits, including screening, examination/cleaning and treatment, were provided for each child. In the screening visit, baseline parental oral health knowledge was evaluated for all parents. Afterward, parental oral health knowledge was re-evaluated in the examination visit. In the treatment visit, a parental perception questionnaire was administered to parents following treatment to evaluate their satisfaction regarding the use of the storybook in reducing anxiety levels among their children. RESULTS: There was a significant improvement in the total knowledge score at the follow-up visit in the intervention group compared to the control group (P<0.0001). Overall, the majority of parents perceived the storybook as a useful source of information, and they found it to be effective in reducing dental anxiety levels among their children. CONCLUSION: The dental storybook is an effective educational tool that can help parents become more knowledgeable about their children’s oral health. Moreover, parents perceived the storybook as an effective tool for enhancing their oral health knowledge and lowering their children’s dental anxiety.