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VOL. 8, ISSUE 3 (2026)
Assessment of prenatal nutritional knowledge among mothers regarding paediatric tooth development and deficiencies
Authors
Savitha Sathyaprasad, Mayuri M Nainegali, Anna Jacob, Abhay S Johns
Abstract
This report presents a statistical analysis of a 166-respondent cross-sectional survey assessing what mothers know about the link between prenatal nutrition and their children's dental development. A composite Knowledge Score (0–5) was derived from five core knowledge items and used to classify respondents as having poor, moderate, or good knowledge.
Overall knowledge was modest: the mean score was 2.19 out of 5 (SD = 1.25), and only 17.5% of mothers fell into the "Good" knowledge band, while 30.1% scored "Poor." Awareness that maternal nutrition affects dental development was inconsistent across items — 75.9% of mothers agreed that calcium/vitamin D deficiency can cause soft, decay-prone teeth, yet only 14.5% correctly identified that tooth formation begins in the first trimester.
Chi-square and Kruskal–Wallis tests found that knowledge was significantly associated with work status (p = 0.004), regularity of antenatal supplement intake (p < 0.001), having been warned by a healthcare provider (p < 0.001), having received dietary guidance from a provider (p = 0.037), prior awareness of enamel defects (p = 0.002), and having heard of diseases causing tooth abnormalities (p = 0.044). Maternal age, education level, and parity showed no statistically significant association with knowledge in this sample.
These results point to healthcare-provider contact and consistent supplement use — rather than demographic background — as the strongest correlates of maternal dental-nutrition knowledge, suggesting that targeted antenatal counselling could meaningfully close the knowledge gap identified here.
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Pages:377-383
How to cite this article:
Savitha Sathyaprasad, Mayuri M Nainegali, Anna Jacob, Abhay S Johns "Assessment of prenatal nutritional knowledge among mothers regarding paediatric tooth development and deficiencies". International Journal of Dental Sciences, Vol 8, Issue 3, 2026, Pages 377-383
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