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Volume 8 Issue 5 (May, 2020)

Original Articles

Knowledge of Dental Students on Managing Dental Fear and Anxiety in Pediatric Patients- A Qualitative Study
Sharbari Dutta, Abinash Mohapatra, Abanti Saha, Nupur Shah, Saurabh Pramanik, Nagarathna PJ

Aim of the study: The purpose of the study was to assess the knowledge of dental students in managing fear and anxiety pediatric patients towards various dental situations. Methodology: A questionnaire survey was conducted amongst 120 dental students which comprised of 45 post graduate students especially from pedodontics branch and rest were undergraduate students over a period of 3 months. The questions were based on the strategies followed by dental graduate as well as post-graduate students to calm and handle anxious as well as phobic children and the difficulties they faced in doing so. Results: It was observed that most of the undergraduate students (76.5%) were less than capable to handle anxious and phobic pediatric patients. In case of post graduate students, most of them (67.8%) were more empathetic towards the pediatric patients. Densitization techniques as well as CBT was also applied (42.7%%) but many dental students had little experience or knowledge of the procedures used. Most of them (89.5%) were not aware of conscious sedation as well. Conclusion: Dental anxiety and phobia can have adverse impacts on a person’s quality of life, and hence it is imperative to identify and alleviate these significant obstacles to pave the way for better oral health and overall well-being of the individual. More knowledge as well as experience is required to handle such patients which was evident in post graduate students who had more clinical experience in tackling such cases, however there was scope for further improvement. Key words: Anxiety, coping strategy, behavioral therapy, cognitive therapy.

 
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