Recognition and evaluation of anxiety in individuals with cerebral palsy during dental appointments
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7308/aodontol/2017.53.e02Keywords:
Dental anxiety, Cerebral palsy, Arterial pressure, Heart rateAbstract
Aim: The present study aimed to verify the correlation between the evaluation of anxiety performed through physiological measures and the observation of the behavior of patients with cerebral palsy performed by the dentist during the first dental visit.
Methods: Forty patients with cerebral palsy, varying from seven to 26 years of age, were submitted to dental examinations. The blood pressure and heart rate were measured at the beginning and end of the first dental appointment. The dentist evaluated the behavior before and after the dental exam by observing the patient’s behavior (restlessness / agitation / nervous tics, pallor, excessive perspiration, resistance, and apparent change in breathing rate). The Spearman correlation test was used to determine the correlation between the physiological measures and the behavioral classification of anxiety made by the dentist at a significance level of 95%.
Results: The most frequent behavioral signs were restlessness / agitation / nervous tics (50.0%), and resistance (27.5%). Through the Kruskal-Wallis test and Spearman’s correlation, a significant positive correlation was found between the two anxiety assessment methods used in this study (p<0.05). The patients considered anxious by the dentist presented higher physiological measurements than did those considered calm (p<0.05).
Conclusion: It can therefore be concluded that the continuous observation of the behavior of patients with cerebral palsy during the dental examination is a valuable tool for the recognition and evaluation of anxiety on the part of the dental team. Further studies are warranted to validate a code of facial and body expressions or anxiety reactions in patients with cerebral palsy.
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