Use of Pediatric Non-pharmacological Behavior Management Techniques and Related Factors among Sri Lankan Seventh Semester Dental Undergraduates: A Cross-sectional Pilot Study

Objectives: This study aimed to explore the use of pediatric non-pharmacological behavior management techniques (NPBMT) among Sri Lankan seventh semester dental undergraduates, with gender and treatment type comparisons. Materials and Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional pilot study was conducted among seventh semester dental undergraduates. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire and 48 completed questionnaires were analyzed. Data entry and analysis were conducted using IBM SPSS-26 statistical software package. Frequency distributions were presented and comparisons were made using Fisher’s exact test. Results: The majority (75.0%) of seventh semester dental undergraduates used NPBMT. ‘Tell-show-do’ technique (41.7%), followed by distraction with questioning and storytelling (16.7%) reported to be the most used whilst distraction by a ‘video-clip’ was less used (2.1%). Child’s past dental experience and language of communication were identified as barriers for effective practice of NPBMT. Significant differences could not be detected in NPBMT use by gender of the dental undergraduate (p = 0.917), gender of the pediatric patient (p = 0.283) and the type of dental treatment (p=0.721). Conclusions: Sri Lankan dental undergraduates practiced simple communication based NPBMT for diverse pediatric dental treatments. Given the small sample size, this pilot study could not detect differences in NPBMT use by gender and treatment type, necessitating future research with larger sample sizes. Nevertheless, our findings indicate the potential of communication based NPBMT amidst language barriers in making firstvisit, pediatric patients cooperative for receiving dental treatment. Keywords: Non-pharmacological behavior management techniques, Dental undergraduates, Pediatric dentistry, Communication, tell-show-do.