From Volume 44, Issue 1, January 2017 | Pages 45-51
Dental fear in the paediatric population can be a significant barrier to providing optimal dental care. Pharmacological management techniques utilized to manage anxiety, such as conscious sedation and general anaesthesia, are expensive and require specialized equipment with additional staff training. With recent advances in technology, video glasses are an economic and novel distraction technique that may aid in improving behaviour management and facilitate dental treatment.
The dental team play a pivotal role in making a child's visit to the dentist a positive experience. It is often necessary to adapt communication and behaviour management techniques in order to ensure patient comfort and compliance. Apprehension towards dental treatment, however, can impede the provision of care and affect a child's long-term outlook on dentistry.1
In the Child Dental Health Survey of 2013, the prevalence of anxiety in the UK was assessed. Overall, 14% of 12-year-olds and 10% of 15-year-olds were found to suffer from extreme dental anxiety. Higher anxiety levels of 21% and 17% were reported in 5- and 8-year-old children, respectively. In regards to gender differences, boys seem to report less dental anxiety compared to girls, which may be due to a reluctance in describing their dental fear. Unsurprisingly, the administration of local anaesthetic elicited the highest anxiety scores in both the 12- and 15-year-old age groups.2
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