Behavior Guidance Techniques used in Dental Care for Patients with Special Needs: Acceptance of Parents

Objective : To evaluate the acceptance of the parents of special needs patients (SNP) concerning behavior guidance techniques (BGT) used for the dental care. Methods : Participants were asked to answer a sociodemographic questionnaire and, after this, they received individual explanations regarding each of the BGT, and answered if they accepted, accepted with restrictions or did not accept each one of them. Data were analyzed using binomial nonparametric test for the difference between proportions and the chi-square test. Results : Participated 83 parents of SNP. All of them considered the use of communicative management (CM) for the patients’ dental care to be totally acceptable. The use of protective stabilization (PS) was considered acceptable by 76 parents (91.57%), sedation (SD) by 65 parents (78.32%), general anesthesia (GA) by 63 parents (75.90%) and nitrous oxide inhalation (NOI) by 62 parents (74.70%). The differences between the levels of acceptance for each method regarding the three educational levels were not statistically significant. Sedation was statistically more readily accepted by parents of patients aged 31 to 40 years when compared with those of children until ten years of age. The acceptance of protective stabilization was statistically higher for patients with physical disabilities when compared with those of patients who had congenital disabilities, intelligence or behavioral deviations. Conclusion : Communicative management and protective stabilization were statistically more acceptable by parents than the other techniques.