Association between Maternal Emotional Intelligence and Child’s Anxiety and Behaviour during Pediatric Restorative Dental Treatment: A CrossSectional Study
Maternal emotional intelligence; Pediatric dental anxiety; Child behavior; Restorative
AuthorsAbstractPediatric dentistry is associated with dental anxiety and resistant behavior that are likely to affect the results of treatment adversely. Psychological issues within the family, particularly maternal traits, contribute to the emotional reactions of children towards dental care. Mother emotional intelligence can affect children perceptions and stress coping of dental situation. This research paper attempted to evaluate the relationship between maternal emotional intelligence and children anxiety and behavioral reactions to pediatric restorative dental treatment. A crosssectional study that was observational was carried in a group of 75 motherchild pairs that visited a dental clinic that deals with children. Children under the age of 10 years, who had restorativedental treatment needs and their respective mothers were involved. The maternal emotional intelligence was evaluated using a validated questionnaire. The area of child dental anxiety was assessed before treatment with the help of an agerelated anxiety scale, and child conduct during treatment was documented with the help of a standardized behavioral rating scale. Descriptive analysis, correlation and regression were used to analyze data. Maternal emotional intelligence was found to have a significant influence on child dental anxiety as well as more positive child behavior in treatment. Maternal emotional intelligence proved to be an important predictor of anxiety and behavioral outcome in children. The emotional intelligence of the mother is significant in lowering child dental phobia and encouraging cooperative behavior in restorative dental activities. The introduction of caregivercentered practice can improve the outcomes of pediatric dental practice.
1. Introduction
Child dental anxiety is a problem that has been well known in the pediatric dentistry field and is known to have a negative impact on the outcome of treatment, cooperation and long term oral health behavior.¹ Anxious children tend to behave uncooperatively in the dental setting and this may make it difficult to carry out simple procedures and this may require sophisticated approaches to behavioral management.² As it has been proven in previous studies, dental fear is a common occurrence of early childhood that might continue to adolescence unless it is effectively managed.³ It is, therefore, necessary to understand what causes pediatric dental anxiety in order to enhance clinical efficiency and patient experiences.⁴ Dental anxiety is very common in children of all ages and cultures and differs in terms of age and culture. One of the systematic reviews and metadata of dental anxiety among children and adolescents indicated that a very significant percentage of patients are moderately to severely anxious and that they should be identified and treated at an early age. The associations between high anxiety levels and avoidance of dental treatment, poorer oral health outcomes, and treatment complexity have been identified. These results highlight the need to investigate psychosocial causes of dental phobia among children. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
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