The management of dental fear symptoms in children in a coparticipation model

Objective To explore the impact of procedural behavior management on children with dental fear (DF) using the interactive mode of coparticipative doctor⁃patient interactions. Methods Ninety⁃eight children with dental fear and aged 3⁃6 years were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group. Dental treatment was per⁃ formed on the observation group under the coparticipation model, while the control group adopted the traditional tell⁃ show⁃do (TSD) operation. The entire process of diagnosing and treating each child was recorded, and the degree of den⁃ tal fear was assessed using a behavioral grading method as the standard. Results The degrees of fear in the children in the observation group and the control group were 3.571 ± 0.913 and 3.857 ± 1.000. The two groups showed no signifi⁃ cant difference in the degree of fear (t＝1.477, P > 0.05). During the treatment, the fear scores of the children in the ob⁃ servation group and the control group were 1.428 ± 1.061 and 3.286 ± 0.707. The two groups showed statistically signifi⁃ cant differences in fear scores (t＝10.198, P < 0.001). Conclusion In the coparticipative model, the fear level of DF children was significantly reduced by process⁃based behavior management, which helped to improve the dental fear of the children