| dc.description.abstract | This study was designed to assess knowledge, attitude, and practices of deciduous canine tooth-bud extraction among mothers in Iceme sub-county, Oyam district. It is one of the harmful traditional practices which involve gouging out an infant‟s healthy baby canine tooth buds embedded underneath the gums, using unsterile tools and without anesthesia by traditional healers to cure fever, diarrhea, and vomiting among children under two years.
Simple random sampling was used to get a total of 220 mothers with children under two years old. Quantitative survey data was collected by the use of interviewer-administered questionnaires, and focus group discussion was used to gather qualitative data, and results analyzed using epi-info version 5. Results showed that almost every child in Iceme community went through DCTE. There was lack of knowledge on the cause of deciduous canine tooth-bud among mothers, and the most associated symptom to the condition was fever. Majority of people strongly believed death as the consequence of not doing DCTE, and hence need for the practice to continue, and be supported.
This call for concerted effort from the Ministry of health and other agencies geared towards halting this harmful traditional practice by changing peoples‟ attitude and behavior. This can be achieved through community-based campaign to increase on peoples‟ knowledge on the normal features in the oral cavity associated with DCTE myth in children, and the harmful effect of this practice on the quality of life in children. There is also need for increasing awareness of DCTE practice among dentists and other health professionals through regular Continuous Medical Education (CME), and comprehensive management of children with DCTE complication | en_US |
