Perceived effective and ineffective dental terminology when treating paediatric patients: a cross-sectional survey

Aims To determine the words that paediatric dental team members perceive to be effective and ineffective for describing dental procedures and instruments to children and to assess if these are influenced by the age and gender of the child.Methods A voluntary, anonymous questionnaire was distributed to paediatric dental staff in NHS Scotland. Questions included participants' demographics, which words they perceive to be effective and ineffective for describing 11 dental procedures and instruments, and whether word choice was affected by the gender and/or age of the patient.Results From the 209 responses, a variety of job roles were represented across 11 different health boards in Scotland. A variety of alternative words and phrases for dental terms were identified, including those considered ineffective. The age of patients was shown to influence the language used by 42.8% of dental team members on average. Patients' gender did not tend to influence word choice.Conclusions This study has collected the most popular euphemisms for common dental procedures and instruments as well as perceived ineffective terminology in paediatric dentistry in Scotland. The study showed that the age of a child frequently influences the choice of language used, while gender plays less of a role.