Reflections of learning perspective on behavior management strategies during dental treatments of pediatric patients

Abstract

Many children perceive a visit to pediatric dentist as a stressful event. Children respond to things that happen to them in their daily lives. If this reality is also taken to a pediatric dentist’s chair, the consequences of children’s behavior should be experienced through learning theories. Today, two main themes of learning in modern psychology are behaviorism (Classical & Operant Conditioning) and social-learning theory (deals with observational imitation). Through these learning theories, fear and phobias are believed to be learned behaviors, and therefore might also be forgettable. The aim of the present paper is to observe the nature of learning theories on how children learn to behave, with bullet point cases of pediatric dentistry settings. By this way, the application of learning theories to our daily practice will encourage us to better understand and serve the child patient.