726 Evaluation of Oral Health Knowledge and Oral Health Status in Mothers and Their Children With Cleft Lip and Palate Aline Roge ´ria Freire de Castilho, D.D.S., Lucimara Teixeira das Neves, M.S., Cleide Felı ´cio de Carvalho Carrara, M.S. Objective: To assess the oral health knowledge of mothers of children with cleft lip and/or palate, analyzing the practical application of this information on the basis of the oral hygiene of the children and caries prevalence of mothers and children. Design: Cross-sectional. Setting: Pediatric Dentistry sector of the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Cra- niofacial Anomalies. Patients: Mothers (n  300) and their children with cleft lip and/or palate, ages 3 years to 5 years 6 months. Materials and Methods: An interview with questions related to dietary habits and oral health knowledge and habits was conducted. Children and their moth- ers also were evaluated by intraoral clinical examination. Results: Of the mothers, 47.3% displayed poor oral health status (Group A) and 52.7% had a satisfactory oral health status (Group B). Children in Group A presented a mean dmft of 6.0, whereas children in Group B had a mean dmft of 5.6. No significant differences were observed between groups. Mothers dem- onstrated a reasonable knowledge on prevention of dental caries and oral hy- giene. Conclusion: Even though the mothers interviewed had some knowledge on the causes and prevention of dental caries, other factors should be regarded as relevant in the caries process. KEY WORDS: cleft lip, cleft palate, dental caries, oral health Dental caries is considered an infectious and transmissible disease of multifactorial origin (Thylstrup and Fejerskov, 2001). After eruption of the teeth in the oral cavity, there will be formation of cariogenic dental plaque when the child has a dietary habit of sugar intake, especially sucrose, in high fre- quency, and is colonized by Streptococcus mutans. The pres- ence of this microorganism associated with improper oral hy- giene habits will establish a favorable environment for caries development, with a clinical manifestation of carious lesions (Darela et al., 1999). The habits and behavior of the mother or the primary care- taker of the child may increase both contamination of the child’s oral cavity and the presence of substrates for bacterial growth. Early contamination and transmissibility occur due to the frequent and repeated contact between mother and child. Dr. Castilho is a student in the Specialization Course in Pediatric Dentistry of the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anomalies of University of Sao Paulo—HRACUSP. Ms. Neves and Mr. Carrara are Professors in the Pe- diatric Dentistry sector at the Hospital for Rehabilitation of Craniofacial Anom- alies of University of Sao Paulo—HRAC/USP. Submitted January 2005; Accepted December 2005. Address correspondence to: Cleide Felı ´cio de Carvalho Carrara, Rua Aviador Carlos Del Plette, 8-51, Jardim Europa, Bauru, SP, Brazil, CEP: 17017-470. E-mail cleidecarrara@uol.com.br. According to Alaluusua and Renkonen (1983), the earlier the contamination of the child by cariogenic microorganisms, the higher the possibility of early caries appearance. Rogers (1981) investigated the intrafamilial transference of S. mutans in 165 individuals from 32 families; 87% of the individuals presented with S. mutans. In 88% of the families, two or more members were colonized by the same type of S. mutans. This alone is not an indication of intrafamilial trans- mission of microorganisms, yet favors the hypothesis that common types of S. mutans occur only in family groups, and that some strains of microorganisms may present intrafamilial transmission. In 30% of the families investigated, all members presented the same type of strain, and the origin of the infec- tion could not be defined. It is known that mothers are primarily associated with the transmission of cariogenic bacteria to their children (Caufield, 1997) and, reinforcing the hypothesis of transmissibility of car- ies from mother to child, Ko ¨hler et al. (1983), Tuutti et al. (1989), Perez et al. (1996), Figueiredo and Falster (1997), and Zanata et al. (2003) observed a positive relationship between the caries experience of mothers and children, suggesting that a good indicator of the caries experience of the child would be the DMFS of the mother. Smith et al. (2002) observed the association between caries