Children’s preference for the odontopediatric gender
Keywords:
Pediatric dentistry, Behavior, Dental care for childrenAbstract
This paper aims to assess children’s preferences for the gender of their dentist in pediatric dentistry. The sample consisted of 34 children - 16 girls and 18 boys who were attended to at a public school in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil - and their parents. The children were approximately 4 to 6 years old. The children’s parents first received a consent form and a questionnaire about their children’s experiences with medical and odontological treatment. Then, two photographs were shown to each child, one of a male dentist and another of a female dentist. They were asked which one they would prefer to be their dentist. The majority of the children chose to be treated by the female dentist (62%), as did their parents (68%). The child’s gender was the only variable that influenced the child’s preference. The chances of a child preferring to be treated by a dentist of the same gender was 15 times greater than preferring a dentist of the opposite sex, regardless of the other variables studied (p=0.04). It could therefore be concluded that a child’s gender is directly related to child’s choice of his/her dentist’s gender, that is, girls preferred to be attended to by female dentists, while boys preferred male dentists.
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