10 February 2026

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Pediatric Dentists' Approaches to Dental Treatment of Children with Dental Fear and Anxiety

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BACKGROUND/AIMS

Dental fear and anxiety (DFA) are important facets of pediatric dental treatment and may cause oral health neglect and dental treatment evasion. This study aimed to collect and share opinions and experiences of pediatric dentists in treating children with DFA worldwide.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Using the Google form survey tool (Google LLC, Mountain View, USA), an online questionnaire was created in five different languages and submitted to pediatric dentistry specialists. The questionnaire included 9 questions in total and gathered data on demographics, causes of DFA, preferred non-pharmacological and pharmacological behavior management techniques, used systems for local pain control, and methods while treating children.

RESULTS

A total of 1,054 pediatric dentists completed the questionnaire. For treating pediatric patients with DFA, >50% reported utilizing both pharmacological/non-pharmacological approaches, whereas 41.8% reported using only non-pharmacological techniques. The most frequently reported causes of DFA were extraction (55.7%), seeing a syringe (55.5%), and injection with a syringe (54.3%). Most participants (84.06%) preferred the conventional syringe technique, whereas only 15.08% reported using other delivery systems of local anesthetics for dental treatments of children with DFA. The most commonly utilized minimally invasive techniques were atraumatic restorative treatment (62.5%), silver diamine fluoride (55.2%), and hall technique (49.4%).

CONCLUSION

Our findings demonstrated that pediatric dentists mostly used behavior management techniques for the dental treatment of children with DFA. However, various minimally invasive dentistry approaches and advanced systems for local pain control could be used more extensively.

Authors: Damla Akşit-Bıçak, Twana Othman Hussein, Gyanendra Kumar

Source: https://cyprusjmedsci.com/