Child's anxiety preceding the dental appointment: evaluation through a playful tool as a conditioning feature

Abstract

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the emotional reactions before and after the application of a child audiovisual book that illustrates the trigger fear and anxiety points in the dental appointment. Moreover, the educational effect of this book as preconditioning to dental care was also verified. Methods: The study is a prospective pilot study conducted at the University of Western Santa Catarina with a convenience sample of 20 children aged 4-6 years old, with and without previous dental experience. All these children received the book and they were assessed before and after the presentation by responsible attendants. The projective test FIS (Facial Image Scale) was applied in 2 stages on the same day of assistance. Both tests were applied at the reception waiting room: before the child came into contact with the book in the dental clinic room and after the child came into contact with the playful instrument. Anamnesis and clinical examination were performed in the dental office by the dentist to start or continue the treatment. Results: The children were able to answer the projective test with self -analysis. The idealized audiovisual book was successfully constructed and used in the research. The comparison between FIS 1 and FIS 2 made with paired t-test showed significant improvements by comparing the results before the presentation of the playful instrument and after the use of it (p <0.0001), with no differences in childhood anxiety between genders and ages. Conclusion: The result of the conditioning technique using the book before the dental treatment was highly significant in reducing anxiety.

Pulse Rate Change After Childhood Anxiety Management with Modeling and Reinforcement Technique of Children's Dental Care

“…This shows the level of anxiety of women is higher than men. In line with the research in Pakistan anxiety is more common in women than men in the ratio of 1:5 [10].…”

“…In the younger age group, the level of anxiety is higher than the older age group, this is because the young age group has not been able to express the basic emotions of fear and anxiety [4] ages 6-7 years old, children will often be associated with dental care because in this age range many permanent erupting teeth start from the first molar. It is probable that the child will be faced with his first experience visiting a dentist, causing excessive greatly influences children's behavior towards dental and oral care [10]. A previous research showed that no significant results were obtained on the effect of age on anxiety [11].…”

“…Modeling and reinforcement or learning by observation not only to acquire new behaviors, but also to reduce unwanted behavior so that children can learn to eliminate anxiety behavior. This technique has been proposed since 1969 and is still used by practitioners [10].…”

Influence of maternal anxiety on child anxiety during dental care: cross-sectional study

“…4 Lack of psychological preparation for children undergoing dental care tends to cause failures of treatment efficiency and makes success impossible. 18 The present study had some limitations. Firstly, we only investigated children aged 5 to 12 years.…”

Child’s Behavior and its Relationship with the Level of Maternal-Child Anxiety During Dental Care

“…The use of instruments, focused on playful activities, before dental care, has achieved highly significant results in reducing anxiety [14]. In addition, therapies such as music therapy, aromatherapy and chromotherapy have increasingly been applied for prevention and treatment of childhood anxiety [15][16][17][18].…”