Prevalence of Behavioral Concern Status and Its Impact on Dental Behavior and Anxiety in 4-6 Years Children Attending The First Dental Visit

Authors

Hadeel Elsayed Hamza, Demonstrator - Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public Health-Faculty of Dentistry-Mansoura University-Mansoura-EgyptFollow
Shaymaa Abd Elghffar Elshishiny, Lecturer of Pedodontics and Oral Health Department-Faculty of Dentistry for girls-Alazhar University-Cairo-Egypt
Rasha Ibrahim Ramadan, Associate Professor of Dental Public Health- Department of Pediatric dentistry and Dental Public Health-Faculty of Dentistry-Mansoura University-Mansoura-Egypt
Mohammed Hassan Mostafa, Associate professor and Head of Pedodontics and Oral Health Department-Faculty of Dentistry for girls-Alazhar University-Cairo-Egypt.

Document Type

Original Study

Abstract

Purpose: To primarily investigate the behavioral concern status among a group of children; males and females aged 4-6 years during the first dental sitting. Also, to correlate the findings with their cooperative ability. Methodology: The mothers of the participants were asked to fill the Pediatric checklist-17 checklist, answering 17-questions about their internalizing, attention, and externalizing status of their personality. Children were assessed for their dental anxiety using RMS-pictorial scale and cooperative ability using the Frankl Behavior Rating Scale. All data were collected, and statistically analyzed using IBM-SPSS software. The total sample 79 boys and 61 girls (56 % & 43% respectively) were involved in the study. Results: Children with behavioral concern were 30 children representing 21.4% of the total sample. There were significant differences between children with and without behavioral concern regarding PSC-17 temperament scores, Raghavendra,Madhuri,Sujata(RMS)-dental anxiety scores, and Frankel Behavior Rating Scale (FBRS) dental behavior scores and between males and females regarding internalizing, attention and externalizing Pediatric Symptom Checklist-17 (PSC-17) subscales’ scores. Females were having more internalizing issues compared to males, while males were having more attention and externalizing issues than females. A statistically significant strong negative correlation between average Frankl Behavior Rating Scale vs. Pediatric symptom checklist PSC-17 (total) was evident in this study.

Conclusion: The PSC-17 checklist is a reliable tool for screening children’s behavior in the dental office. Prevalence of behavioral concern among children of this study was 21.4%. The behavioral concern status of the participated children impacted their cooperative ability and there is a strong negative correlation between the PSC-17 scores and the FBRS scores.

Keywords

behavioral problems, dental anxiety, dental fear, behavior assessment scales.

How to Cite This Article

Hamza, Hadeel Elsayed; Elshishiny, Shaymaa Abd Elghffar; Ramadan, Rasha Ibrahim; and Mostafa, Mohammed Hassan (2024) "Prevalence of Behavioral Concern Status and Its Impact on Dental Behavior and Anxiety in 4-6 Years Children Attending The First Dental Visit," Al-Azhar Journal of Dentistry: Vol. 12: Iss. 1, Article 12.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.58675/2974-4164.1651

Subject Area

Pediatric dentistry and orthodontics Issue (Pediatric Dentistry, Orthodontics)