A review and analysis of children's fearful behavior in dental settings

Abstract

This paper is a review of the empirical literature dealing with the fearful responses of normal children to dental experiences. The first part of the paper reviews 4 major ways of measuring children's fearful behavior, namely, through behavioral rating scales, self-report measures, projective techniques, and physiological measures. The next section of the paper, dealing with incidence of dental fear and age changes, makes the point that disruptive dental behaviors are seen in relatively few children, with marked diminutions in anxiety occurring in the preschool years. Correlates of dental anxiety and experimental studies of dental fear are reviewed in the final portions of the paper.