Open Sesame: A Comparative Evaluation of Parental and Dentist Perception on Various Mouth Props

The most commonly used adjunct on a cooperative child is the mouth prop. However, the design variation of the mouth props and the possible disadvantages make it difficult to select the appropriate mouth prop. Hence, this study was conducted to evaluate and compare the effectiveness and acceptance of custom-made mouth props with that of commercially available mouth props.

To evaluate and compare the effectiveness and acceptance of custom-made mouth props with that of commercially available mouth props.

A custom-made mouth prop was fabricated that had added advantages of intraoral illumination and customized mouth opening and was used along with three commercially available mouth props on 10 children aged 4 to 10 years who required restorative procedures and were evaluated for their effectiveness based on the response given by the dentists and parents to the questionnaire provided to them. The results were evaluated using the Chi-square test.

The custom-made mouth prop was more acceptable when compared to other available mouth props owing to its property of intraoral illumination, customized mouth opening, and child-friendly design.

The study results concluded that custom-made mouth props can be considered an effective adjunct for mouth opening.