Practices towards oral health among caretakers of children below 5 years at Masaka regional referral hospital, Masaka district. Across-sectional study.

Background: The aim of the study is to assess the practices towards oral health among caretakers of children below 5 years at Masaka regional referral hospital, Masaka district. Methodology: A cross-sectional descriptive research design in nature was used in this study. The group was composed of caretakers of children below 5 years in the Masaka region. A simple random sampling technique was used to select respondents from the source population. Results: Most (42%) respondents had attained secondary level of education, (52%) were Catholics, and (74%) were Baganda by tribe. The majority of the respondents (70%) had not yet taken their children to visit a dentist, whereas the minority (2%) had taken their children to visit a dentist after the eruption of the first milk tooth. Most of the respondents (86%) reported that they took their children to visit a dentist only during problems. Most of the respondents (40%) reported that they commenced cleaning of their children’s teeth after 4-6 milk teeth erupted, while the least (10%) reported they commenced cleaning of their children’s teeth soon after the first milk tooth eruption. Almost half of the respondents (48%) used toothbrushes to clean their children’s teeth. Most of the respondents (60%) brushed their children’s teeth once a day, whereas the least (10%) had no particular time to brush their children’s teeth. Half of the respondents (50%) didn’t have a particular time for changing their children’s toothbrushes, whereas the least (2%) changed their children’s toothbrushes once a month. Conclusion: Participants possessed very bad practices towards oral health in children below 5 years Recommendations: Health workers at Masaka regional referral hospital should sensitise people about the importance of regular dental visits.