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DENTAL ANXIETY REDUCTION IN CHILDREN

Dental Anxiety Reduction in Children

Reena Zaver

Dental Hygiene Department, South College- Nashville

RDH 1430: Pain Management/Anxiety Control and Medical Emergencies

Ms. Sarah R. Mckinney

August 17, 2021

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DENTAL ANXIETY REDUCTION IN CHILDREN
Dental Anxiety Reduction in Children

The dental management of patients with dental anxiety requires special attention from

dental professionals. Dental anxiety is so prominent in today’s society. We need to do whatever

we can as clinicians to ease the patient’s mind. If we can ease the patient, it will benefit their oral

health. The more a patient delays coming to us, the higher the risk is of developing dental

problems.

Eye Movement Distraction: A New Distraction Technique for Management of Dental Anxiety

during Intraoral Local Anesthesia Administration in Children

Majority of the time, children have a very low pain tolerance. Because of this, the use of

local anesthetics is very important in the treatment of any dental procedures. Even adults hate the

thought of a needle penetrating the inside of their mouth! We need to do everything we can to

minimize the pain of the injection and put the child at ease. There a number of things we can do

to put their minds at ease. Pain can be perceived physically and psychological. There are things

we do could such as applying topical anesthetic and even audio aids and deep breathing.

Whatever we feel will work for the child, should be done. Techniques such as eye movement

distraction is an effective way of reducing the psychological component of anxiety.

Non-pharmacological Interventions for Managing Dental Anxiety in Children

Children react to pain in very disruptive and non-compliant ways. Because of this, we

need to ways to help a child relax as local anesthetic is being administered. Children usually fear

of the injections the high-speed cutting instruments. The fear of dental treatment can have an

impact on the quality of work of the procedure. Children that have low levels of dental anxiety

can be distracted by means of positive reinforcement, voice control, and magic tricks. Children

with moderate or severe levels of dental anxiety may require different psychological approaches
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DENTAL ANXIETY REDUCTION IN CHILDREN
such as cognitive behavioral therapy. This can include learning relaxation skills and conducting

mini-experiments. This is used to gradually reduce a child’s anxiety. The use of basic

psychological techniques such as the ones stated above can effectively reduce the children’s

dental anxiety. This can help their acceptance of the dental office and dental procedures.

The Effect of Psychological Management on Dental Anxiety in Children

Dental anxiety is a problem that creates a barrier to oral heath care services. All it takes is

one bad experience to traumatize a child into hating going to the dentist. This can even affect

their decision coming to the dentist as an adult, which can negatively affect their oral health. Our

main goal is to give the child the ability to ultimately accept dental care and foster a positive

attitude towards oral care. The use of audio-visual products are used to help the child relax. This

can help distract the child and make them feel as if they’re in their own world. We could even

use a desensitization technique. This would entail slowly introducing the child to different dental

procedures. We start easy with a simple polishing procedure and then move onto more invasive

procedures. This would be ideal for a child that has already been “traumatized.”

Conclusion

Dental fear and anxiety is a major issue in pediatric dentistry. Because of the fear of the

dentist, most of the time it results in the deterioration of a child’s oral health early on in life. If

there is a way to prevent bad oral health, we need to do everything in our power as dental

professionals to prevent it from happening in the first place. Dental treatment should focus on not

only on the prevention of caries, but on the psychological aspects that the dental treatments can

cause. This will help prevent painful and traumatic experiences. There are an abundance of ways

we can help children overcome their anxieties and it our job to help them.
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DENTAL ANXIETY REDUCTION IN CHILDREN
References

Anthonappa, R. P., Ashley, P. F., Bonetti, D. L., Lombardo, G., & Riley, P. (2017). Non-

pharmacological interventions for managing dental anxiety in children. Cochrane

Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd012676 

Folayan, M., Ufomata, D., Adekoya-Sofowora, C., Otuyemi, O., & Idehen, E. (2003). The effect

of psychological management on dental anxiety in children. Journal of Clinical Pediatric

Dentistry, 27(4), 365–370. https://doi.org/10.17796/jcpd.27.4.m97882243p3474hn 

Tirupathi, S. P., Krishna, N., & Rajasekhar, S. (2019). Eye movement DISTRACTION: A new

distraction technique for management of DENTAL anxiety during INTRAORAL local

Anesthesia administration in children. International Journal of Clinical Pediatric

Dentistry, 12(6), 507–509. https://doi.org/10.5005/jp-journals-10005-1690