Rebecca M Gollub
| Rebecca M Gollub |
Rebecca M Gollub1, Tiana Piscitelli1, Lauren Rasmussen1, Evlambia Hajishengallis1, Leanne Magee2
1Division of Pediatrics, Preventive & Restorative Sciences, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine; 2Pediatric Psychology, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia
Introduction
The purpose was to determine if children under the age of six are cognizant of changes in their appearance as it relates to smile esthetics.
Methods
A photo survey was given to parents and children less than six years of age with and without a history of unesthetic dental treatments such as extraction of anterior teeth, silver diamine fluoride (SDF) or stainless steel crown (SSC) placement. The survey consisted of five photographs depicting the same mouth modified with healthy, decayed, missing, anterior teeth treated with SDF or posterior teeth restored with SSCs. Parents of children who received unesthetic dental treatment were asked to complete an additional survey asking about the social experiences with their child such as receiving comments from other parents or children as well as their feelings towards treatment outcomes. For the children, answer choices were in the form of very happy, neutral, and very sad faces.
Results
Surveys are still being administered and new participants are being enrolled in the study. The data collection is ongoing to gather feedback and opinions from as many participants as possible with an end goal of statistical analysis and interpretation. The results will assess whether preschool children are concerned with their smile esthetics and if their parents have noticed any changes in the child’s behavior or have received any comments about the unesthetic nature of the dental treatment. The pediatric dentist should be aware and consider such potential effects in treatment planning for the primary dentition.
Conclusion
TBD