Pediatric dentists' attitudes regarding parental presence during dental procedures

A controversial aspect of pediatric dentistry today is parental presence. A number of authors report an increase in the number of parents who wish to accompany their children throughout the dental appointment. Dentists historically have excluded parents from the treatment area, while pediatricians routinely keep the parent and child together. The purpose of this survey was to determine the frequency that Florida pediatric dentists permit parental presence during children's dental visits and to relate the influence of patient age, dentist's years in practice, procedure type, and practitioner attitudes on parental presence. A high return rate (98.9%) was obtained, and results indicated a significant increase in parental presence in the dental operatory and that further increases in parental presence are expected. Younger children were more likely to be accompanied by a parent for each procedure. Parental presence for examination was more likely than for restorative or extraction. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) indicated that the most frequent attitudes influencing the pediatric dentist's choice to exclude parents were that their presence: wastes time (P < 0.001); disrupts the child (P < 0.05); and makes the dentist uncomfortable (P < 0.05).