Autistic children’s parents and hospital dentistry

Background: It is difficult to perform dental procedures in autistic children, and parentalinvolvement is necessary for successful hospital dental services. Therefore, in order to promote oralhealth in autistic children, this study was aimed to explore the knowledge, attitude, and performanceof autistic children’s parents with respect to hospital dentistry.Materials and Methods: This cross‑sectional study was conducted with the parents of 100 autisticchildren aged 2–6 years selected from among the children of Isfahan autism treatment centers.A self‑administered questionnaire, including parental demographic information and 22 items onthe assessment of knowledge, attitude, and performance of autistic children’s parents regardinghospital dental procedures under general anesthesia, was completed by 100 parents. P 0.05 wasconsidered statistically significant. Data were analyzed by SPSS software using Chi‑square test.Results: A total of 100 parents of autistic children, with an average age of 37.4 ± 6.1 years, wererecruited in this study. The results showed that 56%, 50%, and 3% of parents had poor knowledgeabout dental hospital services, dental complications, and hospital dentistry rules, respectively. Further,51% of parents believed that general anesthesia was dangerous to their children. In addition, 69%of children had little or no cooperation with the dentist. There was also a significant relationshipbetween the knowledge, attitude, and performance of autistic children’s parents regarding hospitaldentistry and the parents’ age and sex.Conclusion: This study showed that autistic children’s parents had poor knowledge, attitude, andperformance with respect to hospital dentistry.