Parents' assessment and children's reactions to a passive restraint device used for behavior control in a private pediatric dental practice.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to compare parents' acceptance of passive restraint with their personal perception of their own anxiety, their evaluation of their child's emotional state while being restrained and the treating dentist's perception of their levels of stress.

Methods: A convenience sample of 100 children who needed passive restraint in order to complete their restorative dental needs were included in the study. After the dental treatment was completed, surveys were mailed to the parents who were in the operatory during the restorative procedure, asking them to evaluate their level of stress, their view of how their child accepted the passive restraint device and their view of the success of the procedure. The treating dentist also evaluated their apparent levels of apprehension and the behavior of the children while being restrained, using the Sarnat Scale. There were 42 replies to the survey.

Results: The results showed that the difference between the percentage of parents that felt no anxiety vs. moderate to severe anxiety was not significant. Ten percent of the parents felt their child did not mind being restrained, while the balance was evenly split between feeling that their child was either unhappy but accepting or unhappy and not accepting of restraint.

Conclusions: For the population studied, the use of passive restraint was acceptable to most parents, as those in this study did not view it negatively. They were clam while observing their child being treated and happy with their decision for its use. The results suggest that most parents will accept this modality for behavior control.