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Understanding children's attention to traumatic dental injuries using eye-tracking
Vanessa Y Cho1, Janet H Hsiao2,3, Antoni B Chan4
1Dental School, The University of Western Australia, Perth, West Australia, Australia.
Summary
Preschool children notice dental injuries but typically don't show negative attention. Eye-tracking reveals distinct visual patterns, with most children not avoiding images of traumatic dental injuries (TDIs).
Area of Science:
- Pediatric dentistry
- Ophthalmology
- Developmental psychology
Background:
- Traumatic dental injuries (TDIs) in primary teeth can cause discolouration and fractures.
- Understanding children's perception of these injuries is crucial for early intervention and support.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate visual attention patterns in preschool children viewing outcomes of TDIs.
- To differentiate between typical and selective visual search strategies in response to dental trauma images.
Main Methods:
- Utilized eye-tracking technology on 155 healthy preschool children.
- Analyzed eye movement patterns using the Eye Movement Analysis with Hidden Markov Models (EMHMM) approach.
- Assessed visual attention to clinical images of healthy teeth, fractures, and discolourations.
Main Results:
- Identified two distinct eye movement patterns: distributed and selective (p < .05).
- Children with a distributed pattern shifted focus between images, while selective pattern viewers fixated on one image.
- Most children did not exhibit an attentional bias towards TDI outcomes, suggesting neutral or positive interpretation.
Conclusions:
- Preschool children visually notice dental elements, including those affected by TDIs.
- The majority of children did not display negative attentional bias to TDI outcomes.
- The EMHMM approach effectively assesses individual differences in children's visual attention to dental trauma.
