The quality of dental treatment of a child depends on one's cooperation and repo with a dentist in the treatment room. How a dentist manages a child depending upon the understanding the child's behaviour pattern.
There are certain guidelines that are useful in helping a child to show a positive & compliant behaviour while getting the dental treatment. These guidelines have been prepared from the findings and principles of behavioural dentistry, behavioural psychology, developmental psychology, and paediatric psychology.
Children are different from each other so are their behaviour. They behave as per their learning development. At any a particular age, they show one types of behaviour that is considered normal for that chronological age group. So, classifying the behaviour based on age groups is a convenient way of expecting a particular type of cooperation. Although, there may be individual variation.
Behaviour and the expected level of co-operation from a child
Under two years
The child has minimal understanding of dental treatment and make him/her understand is difficult as effective communication is impossible. Even then, the oral examination and few treatments can be done without cooperation.
Two years old
The ability of a two years old child varies according to the level of vocabulary development, which mostly is limited. Therefore, the difficulty in communication put the child in a pre-cooperative stage. At this stage, they prefer solitary play and sharing with others is rare. They are shy of dentist, places and new people. It Is difficult to communicate to them by words only. In the dental office, they should be allowed to touch and manipulate the objects to understand their meaning. These children must come with a parent.
Three years old
By three years, a child becomes less self-centered. They also like to follow adults’ commands to make them happy. Their imagination becomes vivid and they like stories. Therefore, the communication and reasoning with them become easy. However, at the stressful moments they refuse to listen to strangers and look towards their parents. To make them feel more secure, one of the parents should be allowed in the operatory till they become familiar with dentist and the nurse. Afterwards, a positive approach can be adopted.
Four years old children
These children listen with interest and respond well to verbal instructions. They are quick-witted and can talk well, but are prone to exaggeration. Besides, they participate well in small groups. They can be cooperative patients, but few can be provocative and try to impose their views and opinions. They have knowledge and make a response well to thank you and please.
MCQ paper on on this topic coming soon.
Summary present at this link.