A recent study appearing in the International Journal of Pediatric Dentistry by authors at the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid may provide information regarding the formation of children’s fearful attitudes towards dental visits.
Researchers studied 183 children between the ages of 7 and 12 years of age and their parents. They determined from their research that there’s a strong link regarding fear levels between mothers, fathers, and their children. América Lara Sacido, one of the authors of the research, remarked that the results suggest that “children seem to mainly pay attention to the emotional reactions of the fathers when deciding if situations at the dentist are potentially stressful.” The attitudes of fathers seemed to influence the attitudes of children even more than those of mothers in the research.
Dentist fear prevention and education campaigns may be beneficial in helping parents understand how important their positive attitude toward dental visits can be in shaping the attitudes of their kids.
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