Assessing children on the basis of their behavior is one important skill for a pediatric dentist. Dental anxiety and fear are one of the most important aspects of child management. Children can have anxiety and fear that they don’t understand. Preschool children don’t have the ability to understand situations. Preschoolers are still at the beginning of behavior development and do not pay much attention to the impact of their behavior upon others. As soon as the child arrives at school, they begin to learn and socialize with others. Preschool is the time when pediatric dentists use pharmacological means to encourage cooperation.
Many behavior rating systems are available to help evaluate and rate the behavior of children during dental visits. Frankl et.al divided a child’s behavior into four groups based on his attitude and whether or not he cooperated during dental treatment. This classification is known to be the Frankl behavioral rating scale. It is one of the most reliable tools used for rating children’s behavior in dental sittings.
The factors that influence a child’s behavior in a dental visit include their age, parent behavior, anxiety, past medical or dental history, awareness about their dental problem and the type of setting they are in, as well as behavior management and the dental procedures followed.
There are many techniques to change a child’s behavior in the dental office. The nonpharmacologic Tell-show-do method, which involves a verbal explanation of the procedure to the patient, demonstration for the patient of (visual and auditory) aspects of the procedure, and completion of the procedure, is still the most widely used technique in pediatric dental.
Bandura 1967 described modeling as a nonpharmacologic management technique for behavior. This was a method of acquiring behavior by watching a model. Children’s fear and anxiety regarding dental treatment can be reduced by watching a peer, whether live or recorded.
This study had two goals: to analyze and assess children’s behavior at the dentist and to determine the impact of behavior management techniques (tell-show-do, live modeling) on the children.