Factors associated with gagging during radiographic and intraoral photographic examinations in 4–12-year-old children

Assessment of Quality of Radiograph Taken by Undergraduate Students in Paediatric Dentistry Clinic: An Institutional Study

“…This can cause discomfort to the child and might trigger them to gag during the placement. Katsouda et al [11] in their study reported about one-fifth of the children gagged during the radiographic examination (21%) and/or during the intraoral photography (20%). Meanwhile, a study conducted in Sweden reported that about 19% from 2363 children involved in the study reported of pain during the radiographic investigation [12].…”

Gag reflex and child's dental care

“…As mentioned earlier, gagging is more likely to occur in individuals who are afraid or anxious about dental procedures Katsouda et al 2020;. Indeed, whether the gag reflex is triggered during dental treatment may vary due to individual psychological differences, in that more severe gagging is related to higher levels of dental fear .…”

“…After they had completed the CFSS-DS, the children entered the examination room and were seated on the dental chair. Before any dental examination began, a well-calibrated examiner/paediatric dentist, who was blind to the children's answers on the CFSS-DS and who had been trained on 20 randomly chosen children in the dental clinic, used a dental mirror to perform the short form of the Gagging Problem Assessment -dentist part, modified for children (GPA-de-c/SF), an examination which has demonstrated good construct validity for this age range , Katsouda et al 2020. During this examination, the paediatric dentist checked for any gagging reaction when the mirror was placed at six specific sites in the child's mouth.…”

“…A positive association has often been found between gagging and dental anxiety in both adult and child samples (Katsouda et al 2020;Almozino et al 2016;. According to Folayan et al (2004), paediatric dental fear occurs in 3 to 43% of paediatric samples.…”

“…For example, in a recent study almost 30% of children aged 4-12 years old gagged on the GPA-de-c/SF, a standardized assessment tool measuring gagging (Katsouda et al 2020). In the same sample, 21% of the children who needed x-rays gagged during the radiographic examination (Katsouda et al 2020). However, research is limited as far as knowing the prevalence of gagging over a course of dental treatment, especially in children.…”