English

Abstract

BACKGROUND Paediatric dentists are expected to recognize and effectively treat childhood dental diseases which can be cumbersome owing to the child’s inert anxiety and fear. Behaviour management techniques facilitate communication and establish social and behavioural guidelines for the dental environment. On what basis do paediatric dentists decide the appropriate management techniques for a child? This requires an understanding of children’s expected behaviour at different stages of intellectual development. Jean Piaget theorized cognitive development through four stages. According to him, children’s knowledge about reality is acquired by touching and observing, balanced by an interplay between assimilation and accommodation. The objective of the study was to prepare an outline integrating contemporary behaviour management techniques with Piaget’s cognitive development stages for a child to be able to provide them with a positive dental experience. METHODS A thorough literature search was done utilising different search engines (PubMed, Scopus, MedLine and google scholar) using different key words from the MeSH terminologies database. Comparative clinical trials and randomized clinical trials were included in the study and the recommendations were tabulated. RESULTS After performing a literature review, relevant articles were identified from various search engines. Piaget’s theory was reviewed as it views cognitive and intellectual activities as adaptive and helpful for the child in coping, organizing and reorganizing their thoughts and actions. CONCLUSIONS A systematic outline was prepared with the goal to develop a guideline fitting the objectives of this paper. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE This outline will enable the paediatric dentist to decide the appropriate behaviour management technique to provide a positive dental experience for a child in accordance with their expected cognitive and intuitive stage of development. KEY WORDS Cognitive Development Theory, Behaviour Management, Jean Piaget, Child Psychology