Table 5.

Factor loadings for parental knowledge scale *

Item No.	Item	Factor 1 General knowledge of tooth brushing	Factor 2 Awareness of tooth brushing care
1.	It is important to brush children’s teeth twice every day to prevent tooth decay	0.475
2.	Most children younger than 8 years need help from parents to brush their teeth effectively	0.609
3.	Brushing with fluoridated toothpaste from 6 months of age is important for preventing tooth decay	0.745
4.	Children are only supposed to use a smear layer/ pea-sized amount of toothpaste	0.587
5.	Once children have their full set of baby (milk) teeth, tooth brushing needs to be done for at least 2 min to be effective	0.754
6.	It is a good idea to change tooth brushes every 3 months (earlier if the bristles are frayed)	0.748
10.	A toothbrush with small head and soft bristles is better for children As long as my child brushes their teeth, I don’t care how well it is done	0.493
7.	It is best not to rinse the mouth at all after finishing tooth brushing		0.718
8.	It is safe if children swallow toothpaste every day		0.818
9.	Routine brushing should only start once the permanent teeth start to come through		0.499
11.	Powered/electric toothbrushes are as effective as manual tooth brushes in children		0.496
	Eigenvalue	1.757	0.893
	Proportion of variance (%)	26	16
	Cronbach Alpha	0.925	0;923

Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin was 0.74, Bartlett’s test of sphericity was significant (p-value < 0.001)

Principal Components Analysis (PCA) extraction with Promax rotation was applied

*The scale is adapted from [13]