Dental health of dentists' children in Mongolia.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the dental health of dentists' children, to evaluate its association with their dentist-parents' background and work-related characteristics and to compare it with that of children in the general population in Mongolia.


METHODS
Cross-sectional survey, questionnaire-based data.


METHODS
Dentists' children, aged 3-13 years.


METHODS
All dentists (n = 250) actively practising in the capital city of Mongolia.


RESULTS
The dentists' children's dmft ranged from 0 to 12, and DMFT from 0 to 8; 50% were caries-free. The younger the children, the higher was their total caries experience expressed as the sum of DMFT + dmft scores (r = -0.22; P = 0.001). Dentist-parents' background and work-related factors were not associated with their children's caries status (P > 0.05). When dentists' children were compared with their counterparts at the population level, mean dmft for 6-year-olds was 2.6 for (urban) dentists' children, 6.5 for children in the urban population and 0.9 for those in rural population of equivalent age. Mean DMFT for 12-year-olds were 1.0, 1.8 and 1.2, respectively, in the same three groups. In general, (urban) dentists' children in all age groups had better dental health than did their urban counterparts at the population level. Among 5-7-year-olds, dentists' children had worse dental health than did their counterparts in the rural population.


CONCLUSIONS
Despite the dentists' knowledge and awareness, their children demonstrated higher rates of dental caries than expected. This suggests that Mongolian dentists may have insufficient preventive orientation. In particular, the primary dentition of younger children seems to be poorly valued. In Mongolia, dentists should have better training and education in modern methods of caries prevention and their advantages. Appreciation and care of the primary dentition need to be improved at all levels of oral health promotion in Mongolia.
Tseveenjav
B
B
Department of Oral Public Health, Institute of Dentistry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland. battsetseg.tseveenjav@helsinki.fi
Vehkalahti
M
M
Murtomaa
H
H
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001294:Attitude to Health; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004245:DMF Index; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000145:classification; D003793:Dental Restoration, Permanent / Q000145:classification; D003815:Dentists; D005192:Family Health; D006801:Humans; D008986:Mongolia; D009909:Oral Health; D012423:Rural Health; D016388:Tooth Loss / Q000145:classification; D014094:Tooth, Deciduous / Q000473:pathology; D014504:Urban Health