Psychological studies of emotional changes in children undergoing dental treatment. 1. Changes in plethysmogram

Abstract

This study was designed to examine the influence of children's personality traits and parents' child-rearing attitudes on children's internal behaviors before and after treatment. As an indicator of emotional changes, polygraph data and particularly plethysmograms were compared with psychological analysis data of children's personality traits and parental child-rearing attitudes. The subjects were 40 children with slightly carious primary molars, who were out-patients at Aichi-Gakuin University Dental Hospital. The results show that the emotional changes of children undergoing dental procedures are, in fact, observed at the resting pre-treatment stage, and that they are influenced by various factors, including parental child-rearing attitudes and children's personality traits. More over, in the resting post-treatment stage, these factors impinge upon children's emotions in a more complicated manner.