Dental Behavior and Play Behavior

The purpose of this study was to determine whether the association between previous dental behavior and play ~behavior as reported in a previous investigation in preschool children could be duplicated in a group of schoolage children. The study consisted o~ 27 subjects divided into two experimental groups: a group of appropriatelybehaving children during a restorative dental appointment and a group iof decidedly negatively-behaving children during a restorative dental appointment. The children in the study were observed in a simulated dental environment and their play behavior was quantitated by a method devised by McTigue and Pinkham (Journal of Dentistry for Children, May-June, 1978). The results of this study showed a statistically significant difference between the two groups in their play behavior with a toy dental mirror. Discriminate analysis revealed that all 27 children could be re-classified into their appropriate group. Previous research reported a relationship between the clinical behavior of pre-school children and the style and pattern of their play behavior in a simulated dental environment.I, 2 McTigue and Pinkham-° have concluded that patients who demonstrate an inappropriate behavior during the dental experience have a tendency to avoid certain aspects of the play dental experience. They further concluded that the associations of play behavior to actual clinical behavior are such that play behavior may be a reliable predictor of maladaptive dental behavior. The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether the association between previous dental behavior and play behavior described by McTigue and Pinkham in pre-school children could be duplicated in a group of school-age children. Methods and Materials Sample The subiects consisted of 15 males and 12 females Accepted September 17, 1979 selected from the patient population of the Pedodontic Clinic of the University of Iowa, College of Dentistry. The following requirements ~vere met by the subiects: ̄ They had to be between 66 months of age and 80 months of age. ̄ The), had to have experienced previous restorative dentistry, which included the administration of local anesthetic. ̄ They had to have no reportable or evident physical or mental handicaps, as determined by the investigators, which could interfere with communication. The clinical behavior of the children during at least one previous operative dentistry appointment was used to selectively assign the children to one of two groups which were defined bv a scale developed by Frankel, et al. 3 (Figure 1). Experimental Groups The work of McTigue and Pinkham’2 included three experimental groups: a definitely negative behavior group, a definitely positive behavior group, and a group which displayed both negative and positive behaviors during the dental experience. It was impossible to recruit a definitely negative category since behavior of even the most anxious children contained some positive behavior. Therefore, this study included a negative group in ~vhich the maiority of the behavior during a restorative dental visit ~vas classified as negative or definitely negative. Recruitment was done by four pedodontists on the University of Iowa Pedodontic Faculty. All four recruiters were familiar with the scale and had recruited patients for other studies using the scale. Experimental Method The identical playroom arrangement utilized by McTigue and Pinkham was used in this study (Figure 2). Each child was accompanied from the recepPEDIATRIC DENTISTRY Vol. I, No. 4 221