Dentists' Experiences From Treating Children With Extensive Dental Treatment Needs

BACKGROUND: Severe or extensive caries is a condition that affects a large number of children yearly. This could lead to serious consequences for the affected child such as pain, many dental visits, risk for poorer oral health, and poor esthetics. In many cases, there is a connection to lack of care, whereby dental professionals has an obligation to file a report to social services regarding concerns of maltreatment.

The dental care includes a wide spectrum of measures, from information och oral health preventive actions, to filling therapies and tooth extractions. I many cases the disease is so extensive that the child needs to be referred to a pediatric dentistry specialist clinic in order to get treatment under sedation or general anesthesia. This is more prevalent the younger the child is. Dental treatments performed under general anesthesia or sedation is often more radical and tooth extraction is a common therapy for teeth with extensive decay.

As a dentist, in charge of initial care and treatment, taking care of children who might not know or understand why they have to undergo treatment, or that maybe are scared or suffer from pain, might affect the general wellbeing of the dentist. Perception of stress, especially ethical stress, can further affect how dentists make treatment decisions, among other things. Despite this, the knowledge of how dentists perceive and are affected by meeting and treating children with extensive need for dental care, is unsatisfactory.

RESEARCH QUESTION How do dentists experience meeting and treating children with an extensive need for dental care? How is extensive need for dental care looked upon in relation to potential report to social services?

METHODS AND INFORMANTS This project will use Grounded Theory, that is a qualitative research method. When knowledge and theories are lacking within a certain area, common hypotheses testing methods are less suitable. Instead, by using qualitative research methods, information can be collected from individuals with experience from the area of interest. Some methods, like Grounded Theory, can lead to results that might form a base for formulating hypothesis that later can be tested in studies using quantitative/hypotheses testing methods.