Child dental anxiety, parental rearing style and referral status of children

Objective: Treating children can be difficult for both dentist and child. In some cases treatment fails and those children are referred to a specialist paediatric dentist. Different factors can be put forward for referral of children, such as factors relating to the child, dentist and parent. Possible child-related factors can be dental anxiety and the child's temperament. A possible parental factor is the parental rearing style. The objective of this study was to assess the possible associations between dental anxiety, parental rearing style and referral status of children. Methods: Parents of 120 non-referred and 335 referred paediatric dental patients were asked to fill out the Child Rearing Practices Report (CRPR) and the Child Fear Survey Schedule Dental Subscale (CFSS-DS) on behalf of their children. Results: The questionnaires were filled out by 115 (96%) parents of primary schoolchildren and by 331 (99%) parents of referred children. Referred children were younger than non-referred children, t(442)=6.9, p<0.01, and had significantly more dental anxiety, t(430)=-8.7, p<0.01. No differences existed between parents of referred children and parents of non-referred children on parental rearing-style. No differences existed between fearful and non-fearful children on parental rearing-style and also no correlation existed between children's dental anxiety and their parent's rearing style. However, non-referred children with parents using an authoritarian parenting style were more anxious than the other non-referred children. Conclusions: In the present study, referral status and dental anxiety of 4-12 year old children were not associated with parental rearing style.