طرائق تدبير سلوك الأطفال و علاقتها بدرجات تعاونهم في قسم طب أسنان الأطفال بجامعة دمشق

Abstract EN

Background : It is important to possess a skill in using psychological techniques in children behavior management at the dental office.

Dentists can use one or a number of these techniques simultaneously or subsequently .

Objectives :The aim of this study was to evaluate the behavior management techniques used in managing children treated by postgraduate trainees in the department of pediatric dentistry –Damascus University and their relationship with children's behavior patterns.

Methods: This study included 453 children aged 1,5-16 years (232 males and 221 females) who had been treated by postgraduate trainees in the department of pediatric dentistry –Damascus University in the academic year 2009-2010.

Uncooperative children were excluded.

Children were treated by the dentists who undergoing structured postgraduate dental program.

Behavior patterns and management techniques were recorded in the child dental records.

Children were categorized into four groups based on the stage of their mental development using Piaget rating scale: group I ( 0-2 years old); group II (2- 7 years old); group III (7-11 years old) and group IV (11-16 years old).

Salviov-Tinawi's modification of Frankl's behavior rating scale was used to rate child cooperation.

It consists of 5 types of child cooperative behaviour:1- absolutely negative.

2- negative.

3-hesitant.

4- positive.

5- obvious positive) was used to assess the behavior of all children in their first visit to the dental office.

Behavior management techniques used in managing the children were categorized into 10 techniques :1-parental presence.

2-parent-child separation .

3-Tell-Show-Do (TSD), 4- motivation, 5- distraction, 6-Voice control (VC), 7- Hand over mouth (HOME), 8-restrainer, 9- sedation by midazolam, 10-inhalation sedation N2O-O2 .

The relationship between behavior management techniques and behavior patterns of children ware studied.

Statistical analysis performed using SPSS 13.0.

The level of significance was set at 0.05.

Results: Score (4) of Salviov-Tinawi, s modification of Frankel was the most common behavioral pattern seen (51.7%) in the dental office of the department of pediatric dentistry–Damascus University.

There was no significant difference between males and females in behavior pattern.

Cooperative behavior increased with age in both males and females.

Parent-child separation (79.6%), Tell-Show-Do (50.1%) and motivation (41.5% ) were the most common behavior management techniques used in the dental office especially with high cooperative patterns.

More aversive management techniques were less used whereas sedative techniques in managing children were rarely used.

Conclusion: Proper assessment of children's behavior is necessary and helps the dentist to use appropriate management techniques which can improve child's behavior during dental treatment.

Generally, more than one technique may be needes to manage child' s behavior