KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEFS OF MOTHERS TOWARDS INFANT TEETHING VISITING THE TERTIARY CARE HOSPITALS IN PESHAWAR, KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA (KP), PAKISTAN

Abstract

Background:

Teething or the process by which a tooth moves from its developmental position within the jaws to make an appearance in the oral cavity, is a normal physiological process.

Aims and Objectives:

To assess the knowledge of mothers regarding infant teething and to evaluate the beliefs of mothers regarding infant teething visiting the Tertiary Care Hospitals in Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP), Pakistan.

Materials and Methodology:

A cross-sectional study was conducted among the mothers visiting the Tertiary Care Hospitals in Peshawar, KP. The study was carried out from September 2024 to December 2024. The sample size was 384 mothers calculated through Cochran formula. Convenient Sampling Technique was used. All the mother having children of aged 6 months to 3 years of age visiting the Tertiary Care Hospitals, Peshawar, KP and those who gave informed consent were included in the study. Mothers having children with any systemic disease and those whose children need intensive care were excluded from the study. The data was collected from mothers visiting the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial of Hayatabad Medical Complex and Lady Reading Hospital through a questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyse the data.

Results:

The result of this study indicates that most of the mothers were aged 31 and above (n = 135, 35.2%), illiterate (n = 226, 58.9%), unemployed (n = 309, 80.5%), belonging to rural areas (n = 208, 54.2%) and had 2 to 4 children (n = 220, 57.3%) aged 1 year to less than 2 years (n = 183, 47.7%). Only a smaller proportion, 20.8% (n = 80), demonstrated good knowledge. The most commonly recognized signs were fever (81.8%) and diarrhea (78.4%), while increased salivation (57.0%) was the least acknowledged symptom. A chi-square analysis revealed that the education level of mothers was highly correlated with their knowledge (p < 0.001).

Conclusion:

These findings suggest that improving maternal education may enhance awareness and understanding of childhood teething, emphasizing the importance of educational interventions to inform mothers on this topic better.

Limitations:

This study used convenience sampling, which may limit generalizability to other populations. Future studies should use more robust sampling methods to increase external validity.