Original Article

Year : 2017 | Volume : 2 | Issue : 1 | Page : 19-22

Attitude of General Dentist in Providing Dental Healthcare to Children – Isolating the Challenges

Arjun Thomas, Joyson Moses, B. N. Rangeeth, Jaiganesh Inbanathan

Department of Pedodontics, Thai Moogambigai Dental College and Hospital, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Address for correspondence:

Dr. Arjun Thomas,

No 23, Valliammai Nagar, 2nd Street, Valasaravakkam, Chennai ‐ 600 087, Tamil Nadu, India.

E‐mail: dr.arjun.thomas@gmail.com

Abstract

Context:

Pediatric patients are one of the most challenging groups of patients to provide treatment. This can be attributed to their volatile personality and psychology.

Aims:

This study tries to determine if the nonpediatric dentist feels apprehension/discomfort in providing dental care to children and to determine what aspect of treatment is most stressful. Settings and Design: The study was conducted as a cross-sectional study using a questionnaire containing eight questions to evaluate the attitude and eight questions to evaluate the challenges faced by a general dentist in treating child patients.

Subjects and Methods:

A total of 100 dental surgeons were selected randomly using stratified sampling methods, among which 18 were MDS and 82 were BDS from specialties other than pedodontics.

Statistical Analysis Used:

The data collected were computed and analyzed using IBM‐SPSS 19. Descriptive statistics was used; the absolute and percentage frequencies were obtained for data analysis.

Results:

Out of the dentists evaluated, 46% were apprehensive in providing treatment to children. Among dentists with experience 5 years and less, 67% were found to be apprehensive, whereas only 33% were apprehensive among dentists with >5-year experience. Conclusions: A significant percentage of nonpediatric dentists were apprehensive toward treating pediatric patients.

Keywords: Attitude, general dentist, pediatric patient

Financial support and sponsorship

Nil.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

How to cite this article: Thomas A, Moses J, Rangeeth BN, Inbanathan J. Attitude of general dentist in providing dental healthcare to children – isolating the challenges. Int J Pedod Rehabil 2017;2:19-22.