**Background:** Childhood caries remain one of the most common diseases among children globally, with reported incidence of 60–90% among school-aged children in industrialized countries. Parental practices, knowledge, and attitudes play a crucial role in the prevention or development of childhood caries. Dentists, particularly pediatric dentists who specialize in children's oral health, are expected to be role models for oral health behavior. However, no previous studies had examined the effect of dentists' specialization on their own children's oral health. This study aimed to compare childhood caries levels between children of pediatric dentists and children of general dentists, and to explore potential explanatory factors including nutrition habits, oral hygiene practices, and fluoride use.
**Methods:** A cross-sectional study was conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki and approved by the Institutional Review Board of Tel-Aviv University (protocol code 000108-2, 28 March 2021). Self-report questionnaires were distributed to pediatric dentists and general dentists via social media from April to July 2021 using a snowball recruitment method. The sample included 176 dentists (55 pediatric dentists, 121 general dentists). Sample size was calculated using G-power software with type 1 error of 5%, minimum statistical power of 80%, expected moderate effect size (Cohen's d = 0.5), and 1:1 ratio, yielding a minimum required sample of 102 participants. Questionnaires assessed demographic characteristics, childhood caries levels (frequency, severity, number of decayed teeth), nutrition habits using the Children's Eating Habits Questionnaire (CEHQ-FFQ) with 43 food items clustered into 14 food groups, oral hygiene using the Oral Hygiene Habits Scale (10 items), and oral health knowledge using a 12-item scale. Data were analyzed using SPSS version 25 with chi-square tests, independent t-tests, Mann-Whitney tests, and logistic regression.
**Key Results:** Pediatric dentists were predominantly female (81.8% vs. 49.6%, p<0.001), younger (mean age 42.71 vs. 46.14 years, p=0.016), and had fewer years of seniority (mean 15.46 vs. 18.96, p=0.019) compared to general dentists. Children of pediatric dentists had significantly fewer caries cases (mean 0.65 vs. 1.13, p=0.018) and significantly fewer cases of significant caries (16.7% vs. 45.5%, p<0.001). Fewer caries cases were also detected among the pediatric dentists themselves compared to general dentists (63.6% vs. 76.9%, p=0.068, marginal significance). Regarding nutrition habits, most food groups showed no significant differences between groups, except that pediatric dentists reported their children consumed more fish (mean 2.89 vs. 2.58, p=0.03) and a marginal difference for eggs (mean 3.81 vs. 3.59, p=0.13). Dental habits were largely similar between groups, though a non-significant trend was observed for greater use of fluoridated toothpaste among children of pediatric dentists (mean 4.73 vs. 4.47, p=0.17). Pediatric dentists demonstrated significantly higher dental knowledge scores compared to general dentists (mean 7.78 vs. 7.52, p=0.032).
**Clinical Implications:** This study provides evidence that pediatric dentists' specialized training may positively influence their own children's oral health outcomes, resulting in lower caries rates. The findings suggest that the knowledge, skills, and preventive tools that pediatric dentists apply in clinical practice extend to their parenting behaviors. The higher dental knowledge scores among pediatric dentists, combined with trends toward greater fluoride toothpaste use, may partially explain the observed differences in caries rates. These results underscore the importance of parental oral health knowledge and specialized training in childhood caries prevention. However, the study has several limitations including convenience sampling, reliance on self-reported caries data rather than clinical examination, restriction to Israeli dental professionals, and the cross-sectional design which precludes causal conclusions. Future research should employ larger, more representative samples across different countries and include clinical examinations to validate these findings.