Dental anxiety in minor
Written by:Dr. Joan Bladé is an expert in dentistry and one of his specialties is dental anxiety in children and adolescents. With more than 25 years of experience, this doctor has a qualified academic education and currently also works as a teacher at the University of Barcelona. In the following article, he explains how to know the level of anxiety of the patient through drawing and the main causes.
Dental anxiety in children and adolescents affects between 5.7% and 19% of the population. To discover this problem, the conventional method is to answer questionnaires during dental visits. Even so, another way to observe the propensity to fear is the drawings. Through the graphic representation of the consultation, the level of anxiety of children between 5 and 8 years can be calculated before dental interventions.
Analyzing the drawings , if details are detected such as: the presence of artificial light, an exaggerated instrumental, the teeth, the red color, the patient crying or the absence of arms in the characters represented, the anxiety that the child suffers can be identified.
The main causes of dental anxiety in children and adolescents during the visit with the dentist are: the deep fear of pain, the fear of being confronted by the care of the mouth or the loss of control. In the case of children, the fact of knowing negative experiences of their parents will condition their perception with the dentist.
