RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Before arrival into doctor's clinic, child might have acquired an impression of a clinical environment and doctor's appearance. Different kind of doctor's attire may evoke different reactions. By understanding children and parent's perception and preferences about dentist's attire, a suitable dress code could be adopted to establish good rapport with children. AIM: To evaluate children and parental perceptions and preferences towards dentist attire. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A questionnaire designed with series of photographs of male and female dental students in different attires was responded by 150 parents aged 29 to 63 years and 150 children aged 9 to 13 years. RESULTS: Seventy percent of children participants (n = 104) and 42% of parents participants (n = 63) favored the traditional white coat attire. However, 58% parents (n = 87) significantly preferred non-white coat attires in comparison to 30% of children (n = 46) (χ(2) = 21.61, p < 0.001). No statistical significant difference was noted among the children and the parents, both favoring the use of protective wear (χ(2) = 0.99 p > 0.05), no-significant association was found between parents and children response to white coat (χ(2) = 0.39, p = 0.53). A highly significant difference was found between the male participants, who favored the male dentist and female participants preferring the female dentist (χ(2) = 47.16, p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Our study attempted to rule out the stereotyped concept of 'white coat fear' among children, both children and parents favored traditional white coat attire, contrary to popular misconception 'white coat syndrome'. However, use of child friendly attires could be useful in anxious children for better practice management. How to cite this article: Ellore VPK, Mohammed M, Taranath M, Ramagoni NK, Kumar V, Gunjalli G. Children and Parent's Attitude and Preferences of Dentist's Attire in Pediatric Dental Practice. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2015;8(2):102-107.
RESUMO
INTRODUCTION: To evaluate the caries risk based on the salivary levels of streptococcus mutans in children of 6-12 years of age group before and after consuming probiotic ice-cream containing Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12 and Lactobacillus acidophilus La-5. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A double blind, placebo controlled trial was carried out in 60 children aged between 6 to 12 years with zero decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT). They were randomly divided into two equal groups. Saliva sample were collected before the consumption of ice-cream and Streptococcus mutans count was calculated and recorded as baseline data. For the next seven days both the groups were given ice creams marked as A and B. Saliva samples were collected after ice-cream consumption at the end of study period and also after a washout period of 30 days and again after six months. Samples were inoculated and colonies were counted. RESULTS: On statistical evaluation by students paired t-test, probiotic ice-cream brought significant reduction in the Streptococcus mutans count after seven days of ice-cream ingestion (p<0.001) and also after 30 d of washout period (p<0.001). There was no significant reduction (p=0.076) by normal ice-cream consumption. After six months of the study period in both the groups the salivary levels of Streptococcus mutans was similar to the baseline. CONCLUSION: Probiotic ice-cream containing Bifidobacterium lactis Bb-12 and Lactobacillus acidophilus La-5 can cause reduction in caries causative organism. The dosage of the probiotic organisms for the long term or synergetic effect on the oral health are still needed to be explored.
