Parental acceptance of behaviour-management techniques used in paediatric dentistry and its relation to parental dental anxiety and experience

The aim of this study was to examine the acceptance by Greek parents of nine behaviour-management techniques and its association with several possible confounding factors.

Following ethical approval, 106 parents whose 3- to 12-year-old children had been receiving treatment in a university postgraduate paediatric dental clinic, and 123 parents of children from a private paediatric dental practice agreed to participate.

After being shown a video with nine behaviour-management techniques, parents rated the acceptance of each technique on a 0–10 scale. They were then asked to complete a questionnaire about demographics, their previous dental experience and dental anxiety (modified Corah dental anxiety scale).

The best accepted technique was tell–show–do (9.76 ± 0.69), followed by parental presence/absence (PPA) technique (7.83 ± 3.06) and nitrous oxide inhalation sedation (7.09 ± 3.02). The least accepted techniques were passive restraint (4.21 ± 3.84) and general anaesthesia (4.21 ± 4.02). No correlations were found between acceptance of any individual management technique and parental age, gender, income, education, dental experience and dental anxiety or the child’s age, gender and dental experience. Parents whose children had been treated at the University clinic had lower income and educational levels, and rated passive restraint, oral sedation and general anaesthesia higher than those from the private practice. When the parents were specifically asked to choose between general anaesthesia over any of the active or passive restraint, hand-over-mouth and voice control techniques, 10 % preferred general anaesthesia, and these parents reported statistically significant more negative dental experience but not higher dental anxiety.

Statistical significance of differences was explored using the Tukey–Kramer method.

There was no correlation between parental dental experience and dental anxiety and the acceptance of any specific behaviour-management technique. However, parents with negative dental experience would prefer general anaesthesia over any of active or passive restraint, hand-over-mouth and voice control techniques. PPA is a highly acceptable technique for Greek parents.