Abstract

GOES, Maíra Pê Soares de; DOMINGUES, Marcela Coutinho; COUTO, Geraldo Bosco Lindoso  and  BARREIRA, Alice Kelly. Anxiety, fear and vital signs of the child signs of the child patients. Odontol. Clín.-Cient. (Online) [online]. 2010, vol.9, n.1, pp. 39-44. ISSN 1677-3888.

This study has the objective to determinate the vital signs of the childlike patients, specifically, blood pressure and cardiac frequency, before, during and after the dental proceeding, and connected them with the anxiety and the fear valued through the Venham Picture Test (VPT test) carried out before and after the proceedings. The sample was composed by 44 patients registered in the Clinics of Odontopediatric of the Federal University of Pernambuco, in the period of February to July 2008. The VPT test was also connected with genre, age, medical and odontologic history of the children. Data analysis was performed by Friedman test and the test VPT association with the other variables were studied with an estimated odds-ratio and confidence intervals of 95%. The results did not reveal statistically significant associations between the vital signs and the emotional reactions. However, the test VPT was shown a very efficient instrument of evaluation of anxiety in children, especially in pre-school age, which majority presented anxiety. When associated with odontologic history it showed that the children with negative experience in odontologic consultations are more anxious, however doesn't shown relations with the medical history and with the genre. The adoption of the VPT test for the odontopediatrics it seems to be a credible suggestion to value the anxiety and the fear on his patients, especially in pre-school age.

Keywords : Fear and Anxiety Childlike; venham Picture Test (Test VPT); cardiac Frequency; blood Pressure.