Factors associated with parents’
and adolescents’ perceptions of
oral health and need for dental
treatment
The aim of this study was to characterize the association
between clinical and psychosocial factors as they related to perceptions by
parents and adolescents to the adolescent’s oral health status and treatment
need. Additionally, the degree to which adolescent’s and parent’s perceptions
of oral health and treatment need were related was examined. Methods: Data
from the Pennsylvania oral health needs assessment for 530 parent–adolescent
pairs were used to address the objectives of this study. Comparisons between
clinical oral health measures, psychosocial factors, and the parent- and
adolescent-reported perceptions of the adolescent’s oral health status were
made using descriptive and inferential statistics, including exploratory factor
analysis and path analysis. Results: Parents and adolescents exhibited only
modest concordance on ratings of the adolescent’s oral health status and need
for dental treatment. Furthermore, parents tended to rate their adolescent’s oral
health status as better than did the adolescent. The results of the path analysis
showed that adolescents based their ratings of oral health status more on oral
symptoms, while parents rated their adolescent’s oral health more on esthetic or
psychosocial factors. Conclusions: Adolescents and parents based their
perceptions of oral health status and treatment need on different underlying
factors. Additionally, adolescents’ perceptions of their oral health status and
treatment needs did not appear to be communicated to their parents