Zhu Xinyu, Department of Stomatology, Strategic Support Force Characteristic Medical Center (formerly 306 Hospital).
Edited by Liu Yan/Cui Yan, Medical Science Popularization Center
Dental care is a "stressful" thing for many adults, and it is normal for young children, especially for the first time to see teeth, accompanied by nervousness and anxiety. At this time, how can parents help their children relieve these negative emotions?
Be mentally prepared before you see your teeth.
(1) Parents' psychological preparation: Parents should first adjust their own mentality, and do not preconceive that "seeing teeth" will be particularly painful, and children will definitely not be able to cooperate. Parents' anxiety will infect children, especially the negative experience of dental care, which will invisibly cause great obstacles to children's successful dental care.
(2) Children's psychological preparation: Before going to the teeth, you can use the picture book to tell the baby why you want to go to the teeth? How do I see my teeth? What tools might be used? Tell your child what it's like to see a tooth in a language they can understand. Parents can tell their children in advance that dental care may be uncomfortable, but the doctor will help us to make the child mentally prepared for dental care, so that the child is not easily anxious.
When seeing a tooth, cooperate with the doctor.
(1) From simple to complex: A good start is half the battle. If your child is seeing a tooth for the first time, you can start by familiarizing yourself with the environment, procedures and the equipment used to avoid giving your child a painful experience in the first place. For example, the first dental visit should only be scheduled for a dental examination or cleaning, or for treating a tooth with a low degree of disease. If the first dental experience is easy and pleasant, the child is more likely to accept the more complicated treatment later.
(2) Accept the child's negative emotions and do a good job of emotional counseling: children may have a certain degree of negative emotions when they see teeth, so as to resist sexual behavior, parents should accept their children's fear of unknown situations, and avoid showing anxiety when the child's performance is not ideal. The doctor will choose some behavior management methods according to the child's psychological development status and the severity of oral diseases, and hope that parents can trust and cooperate with the doctor's instructions during the treatment process, so that the oral diagnosis and treatment operation can be carried out smoothly.
(3) Necessary behavior management methods: For children who are slightly nervous, the doctor will give the child a brief introduction to the purpose of the tools used before the operation, or talk to the child about the issues he is interested in to divert attention; Some older children may be coquettish and uncooperative when their parents are present, and the doctor may ask the parents to leave temporarily; Children who are unable to communicate effectively may also be treated with restraint or sedation. For older children, if all kinds of methods cannot be used to complete the treatment, it is recommended to choose sedation and anesthesia treatment, the use of restraint methods is not only easy to accidentally injure, but also easy to cause psychological trauma.
After the dental visit, review the treatment process
(1) Encouragement and affirmation: Affirm and encourage the good things that the child has done well in the process of dental care, or reward, so that it is easier to accept follow-up diagnosis and treatment.
(2) Ask questions and set goals: put forward the bad performance, analyze whether you can do better, make an agreement with the child, and if there is progress next time, send a "progress award".
(The picture comes from the Internet)