Khurshid A Mattoo^1,, Iti Gupta², Areej Darraj³, Muneera Gohal RA³

Child neglect is the outcome of poor parenting practices, which can be readily identified by the child’s dental status. Unhealthy eating practices by parents during one’s childhood has been found to be continued by the child when he attains adulthood. Self-regulation and self-care skills in adults, develop proficiencies when guided properly during childhood. Dental caries progression is slow and may not cause any warnings, unless damage is irreparable. We present three cases of adult patients who revealed three different themes of dental neglect during their childhood, namely dental care being sought only in case of emergency, multiple missing appointments after initiating dental care and patient presenting with the extensive untreated dental disease. All three cases, were comprehensively treated with full mouth rehabilitation using a multidisciplinary approach. While, the parental neglect may apply till an individual gains adulthood, what influences one to continue same behavior amounts to self-neglect. The relation between the two is unexplored. All patients received intensive dental rehabilitation that took months of planning. All patients were indifferent towards follow up and continued to disregard the protocol.

parenting style, full mouth rehabilitation, self-care, parental neglect, endodontics