Management of Pediatric Patients with Anxiety on Dental Care: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction:Emotional responses in the form of anxiety and a child's behavior towards dental care are serious problems for general dentists and pediatric dentists. Anxious, fearful or uncooperative behavior of the child can hinder the provision of efficient dental care and interfere with the quality of care provided. If not adequately addressed, persistent negative response patterns may appear and become a barrier to regular dental care. Thus this systematic review reviewed some literature on the pattern of handling anxiety in child patients in dentistry. Methods: In this systematic review, article searches are conducted in Google Search, Pubmed, and Cochrane Library. The study was published from 2013 to 2020. 86 articles rated, including 86 articles from electronic databases, 0 from manual searches. 65 records filtered, 20 records excluded, 45 full-text articles rated for eligibility and 17 full-text articles included. Result:There are 17 articles on patterns of anxiety management in pediatric patients in dentistry. Broadly speaking, it consists of non-pharmacological and pharmacological approaches. Handling anxiety behavior in pediatric patients with a non-pharmacological approach includes communication, modeling, tell show do, ask-tell-ask, distraction, desensitation, voice control, reinforcement, hypnosis, sensory-adapted dental environments (SADE), and Animal- assisted therapy (AAT). Meanwhile, when non-pharmacological approaches are not successful, pharmacological approaches can be applied in the form of sedation, general anesthesia, and nitrous oxide / oxygen inhalation. Or using a combination of the two to relieve anxiety in pediatric patients during dental treatment can be an option.Conclusion: Anxiety management can be a non-pharmacological approach and a pharmacological approach or a combination of the two. This pattern of treatment can be used to overcome children's anxiety towards dental care so that this systematic review can be used as a reference in the treatment of anxiety in children patients in dentistry.