There are various known and well documented causative factors of paediatric dental anxiety, I was wondering if anyone has studied and know of any others?
'commonly known':
- parental/ sibling influence
- previous bad experience e.g. remembered pain
- fear of the unknown
- clinician attitude
- dental environment
Many thanks in advance,
Marisa.
Well, one thing is the sound of the drills. Once the drill causes pain, the pain is associated with the noise of the drill, and the patient is in high-sensitivity fear state as soon as he hears the noise. I have gotten past this with a hypnotic suggestion to the patient that the noise of the drill is the sound of the bad tooth and tooth pain being REMOVED, and that the client should welcome it as the sound of relief from his decay. Seems to work, and gets the client to relax during the procedure, which is 80% of the battle. the higher the patients tension the higher the discomfort, so getting them to chill is a major plus.
Bad childhood memories when there was no local anestesia and big bad drills plus dentist's mean comments. I am aware that these are adult issues but the mother and her fears serve as role models for the next generation. The child is not stupid and feels it. Also when my child was 6 months old the dentist thought that I should not breastfeed my child any longer and showed me pictures of very bad first teeth because of breastfeeding. This I luckily did not believe and was sure that they gave those children suger water but I never visited that health station again. Gynecologists (males) had the idea that a child should be breastfed 3 months and no longer. My children suffered from allergies so I followed my instincts and my own education.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Social Psychology
- Attitude