Self-report treatment techniques used by dentists to treat dentally anxious children: A preliminary investigation

Abstract

Objective. To investigate the extent to which dentists report their encouragement to dentally anxious children to blunt (distract from the procedure) or monitor (give information about the procedure) during treatment. Setting. British Society of Paediatric Dentistry conference. Subjects and methods. One hundred and two of 155 delegates (66% response rate) completed a Monitor Blunter Treatment Checklist (MBTC), which was included in their conference pack. Participants were asked to tick all of the 10 statements (five monitoring and five blunting) that reflected how, in general, they would treat a dentally anxious child. Results. Dentists chose significantly more monitoring than blunting statements. Treatment strategies relating to explaining procedures were endorsed by the majority of dentists, while distraction was chosen by less than a third. Conclusion. Dentists tend to use monitoring strategies that adhere generally to the principles of the Tell-Show-Do technique. This may have implications if the anxious child has a 'blunting' coping style.