Effect of awards after dental care in children's motivation.

AIMS: To verify the effect of awards after dental care in children's motivation in two visits to the dentist and if differences occur between genders.

METHODS: This was a randomised and blinded study with a systematic convenience sample consisting of 306 children of 4.99 ± 0.89 years old, with no previous dental experience for both genders, who sought the public dental services. The children were divided into Control group (G1) and Experimental group (G2), who received a positive reinforcement technique with awards after dental care. A projective test with the Venham Picture Test self-analysis was applied and the inference test was the Chi square test with a significance level of p < 0.05.

RESULTS: In G1, there was evidence of a significant association between the T1, T2 and T4 application times and anxiety levels measured in children (p < 10- 4 ; x2  = 15.43), this same association was observed for the G2 group (p < 10- 10 ; x2  > 29.46). For boys there was no significant difference of anxiety between G1 and G2 groups, however in G2, girls showed more anxiety before dental treatment (p = 0.0095; x2  = 6.71) and less anxiety than boys during the second visit (p = 0.0014; x2  = 10.20).

CONCLUSIONS: The award after dental care demonstrated a positive result for the decrease of anxiety in preschool children for two visits to the dentist. Girls in the experimental group showed less anxiety than boys during the second visit.