RESEARCH ARTICLE


Evaluation of the Beliefs of Parents in Iran about How to Care for Children During Dental Visits



Elham Farokh Gisour 1, *, Arash Bigdeli 2
1 Pediatric Department, Kerman Dental University, Kerman, Iran
2 Kerman Dental Faculty, Iran

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2011
Volume: 5
First Page: 187
Last Page: 189
Publisher ID: TODENTJ-5-187
DOI: 10.2174/1874210601105010187

Article History:

Received Date: 22/9/2011
Revision Received Date: 10/10/2011
Acceptance Date: 14/10/2011
Electronic publication date: 2/12/2011
Collection year: 2011

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Creative Commons License
© Gisour and Bigdeli; Licensee Bentham Open

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Pediatric Department, Kerman Dental University, Kerman, Iran; P-O-Box: 76175; Tel: +98-9151689178; Fax: +98-341-2118073; E-mail: e_1379farokh@yahoo.com


Abstract

Parents play an important role in their childrens dental care and in their behavior during dental visits. Separating children from their parents during dental visits has been a challenging subject of debate for many years. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate parents’ attitudes about being present during their children’s visits to the dentist. The subjects for this cross-sectional study included 340 Iranian parents of five-10-year-old children who had been referred to dental clinics in Kerman, Iran. For this study, the parents of these children completed self-administered questionnaires. Results showed that 218 parents (64.1%) agreed with leaving the practice room during their child’s treatment, while 122 (35.9%) did not agree. The main reason expressed by 41.3% of the parents for leaving the practicing room was that the dentist would be better able to control the child if they were alone. Another reason, cited by 16.5% of the parents, was not wanting to see their child suffering, and 42.2% said they believed that their child would be better treated if they were not present. Most parents who were in agreement with leaving the practice room while their child was receiving dental care felt this would lead to a better treatment outcome.

Keywords: Parent, pediatric dentistry, dental practice room.