Abstract
ABSTRACTBackground: Before arrival into doctor’s clinic, child might have acquired an impression of a clinical environment and doctor’s appearance. Different kind of doctor’s attire may evoke different reactions. By understanding children and parent’s perception and preferences about dentist’s attire, a suitable dress code could be adopted to establish good rapport with children.Aim: To evaluate children and parental perceptions and preferences towards dentist attire.Materials and methods: A questionnaire designed with series of photographs of male and female dental students in different attires was responded by 150 parents aged 29 to 63 years and 150 children aged 9 to 13 years.Results: Seventy percent of children participants (n = 104) and 42% of parents participants (n = 63) favored the traditional white coat attire. However, 58% parents (n = 87) significantly preferred non-white coat attires in comparison to 30% of children (n = 46) (χ2 = 21.61, p < 0.001). No statistical significant difference was noted among the children and the parents, both favoring the use of protective wear (χ2 = 0.99 p > 0.05), no-significant association was found between parents and children response to white coat (χ2 = 0.39, p = 0.53). A highly significant difference was found between the male participants, who favored the male dentist and female participants preferring the female dentist (χ2 = 47.16, p < 0.001).Conclusion: Our study attempted to rule out the stereotyped concept of ‘white coat fear’ among children, both children and parents favored traditional white coat attire, contrary to popular misconception ‘white coat syndrome’. However, use of child friendly attires could be useful in anxious children for better practice management.How to cite this article: Ellore VPK, Mohammed M, Taranath M, Ramagoni NK, Kumar V, Gunjalli G. Children and Parent’s Attitude and Preferences of Dentist’s Attire in Pediatric Dental Practice. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2015;8(2):102-107.
Highlights
Child dental anxiety has been commonly associated with the dental treatment and a visit made by a child is no less than an extraordinary event
No statistical significant difference was noted among the children and the parents, both favoring the use of protective wear (c2 = 0.99 p > 0.05), no-significant association was found between parents and children response to white coat (c2 = 0.39, p = 0.53)
Our study attempted to rule out the stereotyped concept of ‘white coat fear’ among children, both children and parents favored traditional white coat attire, contrary to popular misconception ‘white coat syndrome’
Summary
Child dental anxiety has been commonly associated with the dental treatment and a visit made by a child is no less than an extraordinary event. Its etiology is not completely known, it remains a major barrier to dental care.[1] According to the three-pathway theory of Rachman, children may develop an anxious response directly (by conditioning) or via more indirect learning (by modeling or from information).[2] While factors influencing anxiety vary greatly, appropriate clothing of the dentist might possibly contribute to dentist’s empathy.[3] Barrett and Booth were the first to report a negative aspect of the traditional white coat attire, and observed that children regard formally-dressed doctors as competent but not friendly.[4] It is important for a pediatric dentist to establish a friendly relationship with the child patients in order to subdue their pre-existing fears for delivering an effective and efficient treatment. By understanding children and parent’s perception and preferences about dentist’s attire, a suitable dress code could be adopted to establish good rapport with children
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