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The influence of mental development on children's acceptance of dental treatment
Author(s) -
RUD BIRTHE,
KISLING E.
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
european journal of oral sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.802
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1600-0722
pISSN - 0909-8836
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0722.1973.tb00337.x
Subject(s) - mental age , mental development , psychology , intelligence quotient , age groups , clinical psychology , medicine , developmental psychology , psychiatry , cognition , demography , sociology
— In order to investigate the influence of mental development on children's acceptance of dental treatment, the mental ages of 108 individuals with a chronologic age of 3–9 years were determined by a psychologist using Binet's, Cattell's, and Leiter's psychometric tests. The degree of acceptance in accordance with given definitions and the time spent for acceptance were recorded. Mental age as well as chronologic age influence children's acceptance of dental treatment, but mental age has the greater influence. A mental age of 29 months separated in this investigation distinctly between children with and without acceptance. Children with mental ages of 3 and 4 years needed 20% more time to accept treatment than did children with higher mental ages. The time‐span for acceptance was 20% greater for 3‐year‐old children than for older children when IQ values were ≥68. For the age classes 5–9 years the time span was 25–30% greater for children with IQ values <68 than for children with IQ values ≥68.