Children’s preference of dental injectors and its influence on child cooperation

Abstract EN

Background : Behavior management approaches in treating children are generally viewed as time demanding activities that put dentists away from their most important function.

Patients, particularly children, consider local dental anesthesia to be a difficult and painful experience and a dentist who treats children should have a variety of behavior guidance approaches.

The aim of this study was to examine the preference of children concerning the physical appearance of dental injectors.

It also aimed at assessing the influence of the type of injector preferred on the cooperation of the child during local anesthesia administration.

Materials and method : The study group consisted of 67 children between the ages of 4 and 11.

The children were divided into two groups.

Group 1 were shown a plastic injector without stickers applied on the barrel and a metal type injector.

Group 2 were shown a plastic injector with stickers applied on the barrel and a metal type injector.

The children were asked which type they preferred to be used to give them local anesthesia.

The reaction of the child was observed and rated with code from 1 to 4 on Frankl scale adapted for local anesthesia.

Results : Among group 1 34.5 % preferred the plastic injector while 65.5 % preferred the conventional metal injector.

Among group 2 78.9 % preferred the plastic injector while 21.1 % preferred the conventional metal injector.

The cooperation of children of group 1 who received local anesthesia by the plastic syringe, mostly code 3 and 4 (70 %) while the positive cooperation of those who received anesthesia by the metal syringe was 58 %.

In group 2 the plastic injector was more preferred and children who showed cooperation of code 3 and 4 during the procedure of local anesthesia administration formed 73.3 % of the group.

Children who chose the metal injector showed cooperation mostly of code 1 (37.5 %).

Conclusion : The physical appearance of the dental injector is important to children and clearly effected cooperation of the child during local anesthesia administration.