Parental behavior scale in pediatric dentistry: a randomized observational study

Abstract

Background: The objective of this study is to create and validate a hetero-rating scale of parental behavior and verify the correlation between the behavior of children and that of parents during a pediatric dentistry session as well as the ability to perform the required clinical procedure. Methods: This prospective randomized observational study was conducted at the pediatric dentistry consultation. All sessions were filmed. In 60 children from 3 age groups, 2 raters collected data using the modified Venham scale for children and a new hetero-rating scale for parents. These experts analyzed the 60 videos twice and attributed scores at time points of entering the dental office, being seated in the dental chair and during treatment. Results: There is a significant positive correlation between parental behavior at entrance and that of children in the dental office at the treatment stage over all age groups for both raters (Kendall Tau: 0.20 – 0.30). Furthermore, a panel of 20 observers, dental practitioners with different backgrounds, scored a randomized selection of recordings of 5 children per age group. The agreement between both experts was higher than that between the 20 clinicians. Conclusions: A Venham type of scale with categories involving multiple aspects can be used in research but the application in the dental practice needs further development. The link between parental anxiety and anxiety of the child is confirmed but further research is required to incorporate aspects of treatment and detailed parent behavior. Trial registration: The protocol is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov site with the ID NCT05026515 (23/08/2021). The data described in this article are available in https://zenodo.org/record/5813285.