Child Compliance with Oral Health Providers and Caregivers in the Dental Setting

Sophia Shank*, Christopher Owen, Morgan Simpson*, Sarah Lipinski*, Masahiro Heima, Daniel W. McNeil, Cheryl B. McNeil, Department of Psychology, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505

Field (Broad Category): Psychology (Behavioral & Social Sciences) 

Student’s Major: Psychology, B.S. 

Dental fear and anxiety are common in individuals of all age. According to a study done by Taani, El-Qaderi, and Abu Alhaija (2005) with 12-15 year-olds, 43% of participants had general dental fear and 10% of participants had high dental fear. Dental fear and anxiety can be related to observing others who are fearful or experiencing an unpleasant or painful dental appointment. For young, impressionable children, the first dental appointments are particularly salient. The triadic interactions between the oral health provider, the patient, and the caregiver become crucial parts of a patient’s experience and memory, especially for preschool children. In the current study, we coded these triadic interactions for the types of commands that were issued to children under 5 years of age and children’s compliance with those commands. In a study done by McLaren and Kopycka-Kedzierawski (2015) children complied 56%-100% of the time and these rates tended to be higher when it took fewer visitations to complete treatment. Our goal was to determine whether children complied differentially to caregivers and dental providers. These data will also be used to determine whether certain types of commands (e.g., direct versus indirect) are related to child compliance. The overall goal of this study is to gain information that could improve techniques to be taught to dental providers to decrease child anxiety and fear, making it more enjoyable and more likely for children to want to go to the dentist. 

Funding: RHI-NIH