5.1 An Overview of Behavior Guidance

Behavior guidance is a continuum of interaction with a child and parents directed toward communication and education, while also ensuring the safety of both the oral health professional and staff and the child. The goal of behavior guidance is to ease a child’s fear and anxiety about the dental office and oral health procedures while promoting the child’s and parents’ awareness of the need for good oral health and the process by which good oral health is achieved. Some children have cognitive disabilities, communication or emotional disorders, or medical conditions that interfere with their ability to understand and cooperate with oral health procedures or communicate with oral health professionals. The goal is to provide oral health care in the most comfortable, least restrictive, safest, and most effective manner. Advanced behavior guidance techniques should be used only with this goal in mind, not for the convenience of the oral health professional and dental office staff.

Some behavior guidance techniques are intended to maintain communication, while others are intended to stop uncontrolled or unsafe behavior. Behavior guidance techniques must be selected based on the level of the child’s oral health needs as well as on the child’s ability to understand, cooperate, and communicate. Each technique must be integrated into an overall behavior guidance “package” individualized for each child. Acquiring history about the child’s communication skills and special health care needs at the first appointment using a form (such as the “Getting to Know Me” tool in module 2) is crucial to making dental visits a success and making the best possible decisions about behavior guidance techniques.

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