Behavior Guidance for Pediatric ENT Patients – Anything to learn from Pediatric Dentistry?

Examination and treatment of children is challenging for the practitioner, the staff, the child and the parents, especially in a delicate and vulnerable area of the body such as the head and neck. Furthermore, one discomfort is enough to lose a child’s compliance making follow ups difficult or even impossible. Similarities exist between pediatric ENT and pediatric dentistry. Why not look beyond one’s own nose. Since decades, pediatric dentists do successful research on how to guide children through examinations and treatments in order to build a trusting relationship between dentist/staff and child/parents to alleviate anxiety and deliver quality dental care safely and efficiently. What about implementing such strategies for examinations and treatments of our young ENT patients? We present an overview of well-established basic behavior guidance of pediatric dental patients (e.g. “communicative guidance”, “tell-show-do”, “voice control”, “nonverbal communication” and “positive reinforcement”). Techniques that help to increase the child’s compliance, the parents’ cooperation and especially relax the practitioner and the staff. It may be effective enough to make general anesthesia dispensable in some cases. Case reports will provide examples of such behavior guidance techniques into pediatric ENT examination, which are implemented at our tertiary center. Selected cases demonstrate therapy of young children in local anesthesia instead of an intended general anesthesia. Behavior guidance is a standard and successful part of pediatric dentistry since decades. To our opinion, such techniques can easily be transferred into pediatric ENT practice and should be implemented.

 

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Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Publikationsverlauf

Artikel online veröffentlicht:
12. Mai 2023