Clinical Psychological Aspects within The Concept of Pediatric Dentistry

In this paper we aim to describe the pediatric dentistry (pedodontics) wich is a branch of dental medicine dealing exclusively with children and adolescents, being a field that has experienced an impressive development over the past years in our country, being introduced as a specialty in the program of residency in 2016. The purpose of this article is to highlight a number of clinical and psychological aspects resulting from a study of a sample of 10 children on the behavior adopted in the dental office in two distinct situations: in the presence of parents and in their absence. It is extremely important that at the age of 6 months the child should have his first visit at the dentist, followed by yearly checks, in order to familiarize the child with dentistry, thus preventing the establishment of anxiety towrds the dentist. Based on the analysis of the two situations, we noticed the following: children who were assisted by parents in the dental office tended to be much more agitated, non-cooperating, permanently anxious, being mostly influenced by the way in which the parent talks, threatens or even involuntarily induces their fear of the dentist. In the case of unaccompanied children, a stronger relationship was observed between the patient and the dentist, the children being more attentive to what their doctor explains, gained confidence and became more self-assured, becoming aware of the role of maintaining a good oral hygiene.