Psychosocial Problems Common Among Children With Dental Fear
Psychosocial Problems Common Among Children With Dental FearA pediatric dentistry specialist has completed a study that suggests children who have severe dental fear are commonly linked to a history of family upheaval. Subjects of the study were children who
Psychosocial Problems Common Among Children With Dental Fear
A pediatric dentistry specialist has completed a study that suggests children who have severe dental fear are commonly linked to a history of family upheaval. Subjects of the study were children who had received specialist dental care to treat extensive caries and suffered from severe dental fear.
Annika Gustafsson, a Swedish dentist who specializes in pediatric dentistry conducted the research at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
“I wanted to investigate how children and adolescents with dental behavior management problems who received specialist dental care differed from patients of the same age under ordinary dental care,” Gustafsson says.
Gustafsson wanted to also discover why the study subjects cancel appointments and fail to attend appointments more often.
As part of the study approximately 250 children and adolescents who have dental behavior management problems–and their parents–completed questionnaires describing their family situation and everyday life. Their answers have been compared with answers from the same number of patients within ordinary dental care.
“The children and adolescents with dental behaviour management problems suffered significantly more from dental fear, and they lived in families with lower social class and poor economy,” Gustafsson esplains.
“Most often, they lived in single-parent families, they had fewer leisure activities and more psychosocial problems than patients under ordinary dental care”, Gustafsson adds.
The parents of the study subjects reported they also suffered from severe dental fear and had greater problems associated with anxiety and worry than parents of children and adolescents under ordinary dental care.
When parents express reluctance to accompany their child to a dental office because of their own fears Gustafsson says this, too, creates a negative effect on the child.
The researcher also found a significant contrast between the number of cancelled or missed appointments among children and adolescents who have dental fear compared to those under ordinary dental care.
“Children and adolescents that avoided dental appointments had contact with a psychologist or counselor four times as often,” Gustafsson says.
Gustafsson says the patients such as the population she studied must be met with respect and understanding within the dental care system.
“We must also become better at discovering at an early age which children and adolescents need help and support. We should collaborate more closely with the social services,” Gustafsson says.
Source: University of Gothenburg
