I found that in most cases, children do perfectly well with parents in the operatory. It is the minority of cases that are hardest, and where parents are best asked to leave the waiting room.

The behavior of children in the dental establishment depends largely on the confidence of the child in an authority figure and his willingness to surrender control over their own bodies, even at the expense of less pain, an adult who does not know. Confidence is a quality learned at home, on the playground and in school. Children who have learned that adults trusted their parents are adults who are entrusted to them are more likely to have better experiences in the office than those who have learned to distrust adults in general. Children who have been trained to expect adults to make good decisions on their behalf are more likely to have better experiences than those who tend to make their own decisions all at home.

In other words, if their homes are using behaviors that does know their parents do what they want, they will try to do the same in the dental office where such behavior is inappropriate. Their inability to affect the conduct of the dentist in the same way as their parents make them afraid, and the “bad experience” increases from there. If a parent of one of these children is in the operatory, the child plays for parents and behavior only worsens.

The child’s behavior is the variable that can not be controlled directly by the dentist. It does not depend on the above factors, as well as things such as how much sleep a child received yesterday evening, when the day of the appointment (in the morning are always better), the latest developments in a child’s life, and horror stories told the boy his friends, brothers and even their parents.

All of which brings us back to the vast majority of children who are easily treated in the offices of general dentists. Once this is done, as long as I have, I have seen a tremendous amount of tots grow into young adults, and it’s fun to go back and read the initial comments in the records when he arrived for the first time in “apprehensive, but cooperation “” Ran away from the operatory “,” called me disgusting, but then cooperated “(I told him he had to agree with her, but I could not help her. I was born that way.) A child who I had tried for two years without problems decided to launch an attack one day and not let me touch her. She was again next week and has cooperated and has worked ever since. She is now married with children of their own, and almost has no cavities in their adult teeth.