Técnicas de manejo de conducta en odontopediatría: aspectos éticos y legales

Résumé

Introduction: The dental profession is an activity oriented to the people care, including children, who need more specific care being in full physical and emotional development. When working with children you have to deal with the anxiety with which the child first enters the consultation. To solve this problem, different techniques have been described whose choice depends on the age, patient needs and professional skills. These techniques can be grouped into three groups: pharmacological techniques, communicative techniques and noncommunicative techniques. Objective: To review scientific evidence on the ethical and legal aspects of behavioral management techniques in pediatric dentistry. Material and method: A search was performed in the databases of PubMed/Medline, Google Scholar y Scopus, according to inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results: The results determine that the use of behavioral management techniques decreases anxiety levels during dental treatment. The low socioeconomic and educational level and the frequent use of video games increase dental anxiety while the performance of sports and a healthy life decrease it. Conclusions: Among the pediatric patient behavior management techniques, those with communicative management were the most accepted by parents. Although there is no legal prohibition on the use of pharmacological or non-communicative techniques, these are most often rejected by parents.