Comunicação em consulta de odontopediatria

: estudo-piloto de comparação entre Croácia e Portugal : comunicação em saúde/odontopediatria

Abstract

The main problem that occurs in the area of Paediatric Dentistry is that anxious and uncooperative children tend to avoid dental care and tend to worsen their oral health, which presents a considerable challenge for parents, for dentists and for the health system. In order to develop an ideal doctor-patient’s relationship and improve children’s care, it is necessary to know the different factors that are associated with dental anxiety and matching different strategies to apply. The education and training of dentists should include all aspects related to child development and the behavioural control techniques to improve the knowledge base of professionals in this field. This study is comparative observational non-experimental type on the doctorpatient’s relationship and the use of behavioural control techniques in paediatric dentistry consultations at universities in Croatia and Portugal. Thus, it is possible to assess the form of education and training of dentists in this specific area. After analysing the results of 30 consultations of Paediatric Dentistry (15 performed in Portugal and 15 performed in Croatia) to children aged between five and twelve years old, it was found that there are statistically significant differences, showing that dentists in Portugal promote a more emphatic consultation and use a greater variety of communicative behaviour control techniques.

Date of Award	3 Feb 2017
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Filomena Capucho (Supervisor) & Andreia Figueiredo (Co-Supervisor)