Children’s Behaviour in the Dental Setting according to Frankl Behaviour Rating and their Influencing Factors

Background: Execution of eminence oral health care to child dental patients to a large extent depends on the child's behaviour during a dental visit. This study assessed children's behaviour using Frankl behaviour rating scale and examined the influencing factors. Methods: A cross sectional study among 222 children aged 3 to 12 years attending a university dental clinic for routine dental care. They were interviewed on social background; their behaviours were observed then rated and clinically examined. Children's behaviour was reported as mean, differences between groups in prevalence scores and odds ratio, OR. The level of statistical significance was set at p≤0.05. Results: In general 48.6% of the children had a mean score of positive behaviour. More than 50.0% of the children who were six years or older, attending primary school, whose parents had secondary education or higher, displayed positive behaviour compared to their counterparts. A child who had not started school was less likely to have positive behaviour with OR 0.21(0.04, 0.99) for negative, 0.09(0.02, 0.42) for positive and 0.05(0.01, 0.44) for definitely positive. Children who visited the clinic due to pain were less likely to behave definitely positive OR 0.14(0.03, 0.81) while those who were cooperative at a previous dental visit were more likely to behave both positive and definitely positive, OR 4.26(1.01, 17.96) and 9.45(1.68, 53.39), respectively. Conclusion: Most children behaved positively and their behaviour was influenced by socio-demographics, family socialization and environment related to dental settings.