539 - Do parents understand the sugar content in sports drinks?

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate parental understanding of the risk that sports drinks have on oral health as well as the extent at which parents encourage the use of these sports drinks for their children.


Methods: ninety seven in-clinic surveys were given to parents of pediatric dental patients at The Denver Health Wellington Webb Pediatric Dental Clinic. The surveys were given to the parents of patients that were ages 5-20, regardless if they participated in sports or not. Parents were then given an info-gram illustrating the association between sports drinks and dental caries and then the parents were asked to answer 2 more survey questions.


Results: Results showed that more education is required regarding the risk of sports drinks. 59% of parents gave children sports drinks, with 22% of parents encouraging the use regardless if their child participates in sports or not. The majority of the participants were ages 7-9, and the largest number of participants did not participate in sports. 46% of parents encourage the use of SSB. 86% of parents stated a visual education aid regarding the negative impacts of sports drinks on oral health change their perception on the usage of sports drinks.



Conclusions: These findings provided many key insights that can contribute to the decrease use of sports drinks, which can help increase oral hygiene and decrease caries. In order to influence the use of sports drinks, more oral hygiene education is needed for parents.

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