Acceptability of dental students and professionals concerning child behaviour management techniques: Systematic review

Introduction

During child dental treatment, different behavior management techniques (BMTs) are applied and it is important to understand the possible discomfort in the operator.

Objective

The present systematic review aimed to evaluate the acceptability of dental students and professionals concerning BMTs applied with paediatric dentistry patients.

Materials and Methods

A systematic search was conducted, following the PEOS strategy: Population (P) – dental students/professionals (S); Exposure (E) – BMTs preconized by the American Academy of Paediatric Dentistry, Outcome (O) – proportion of BMT acceptance; and Study design (S) – observational studies based on data from PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, BVS (Lilacs/BBO), Cochrane, and Open Grey databases up to September 2021. The eligible studies were submitted to data extraction and to the evaluation of methodological quality, using the Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Tool. The certainty of evidence was evaluated by GRADE.

Results

The search retrieved 710 articles; a total of 21 fulfilled the eligibility criteria and were used for qualitative analysis. Among the undergraduate students and dentists, the most accepted techniques were tell-show-do and positive reinforcement, while paediatric dentists preferred the tell-show-do technique and dental professionals with graduate degrees preferred sedation using nitrous oxide and positive reinforcement. The least accepted technique was protective stabilization. Seven students presented a low risk for bias, while 14 presented a high risk. The certainty of evidence was classified as very low.

Conclusion

Although the basis of available certainty of evidence is scarce and with a considerable risk for bias, it is still possible to conclude that the more accepted techniques were based on communication.