Relationship between Anger Expression in Mothers and Acceptance of Behavior Management Techniques in Pediatric Dentistry

Statement of the Problem: The parental acceptance rate of the behavior management methods used in pediatric dentistry is influenced by various factors. Purpose: This study was aimed to investigate the relationship between mothers’ anger ex-pression and their acceptance of behavior management methods. Materials and Method: In this cross-sectional study, 110 mothers of children who had less than 12 years of age were recruited. They completed Spielberg’s state-trait anger expression inventory (STAXI). The respondents watched an educational video that included explana-tions of seven behavior management methods. Then, they reported their acceptance of each of these methods using the visual analog scale (VAS). Results: The acceptance rates of behavior management methods from the highest to lowest included tell-show-do, pre-appointment behavior shaping, mouthpiece, voice control, gen-eral anesthesia, active restraint, and passive restraint, respectively. There was only a signifi-cant inverse relationship between the acceptance of the tell-show-do method and the anger expression (p 0.05). There was no significant relationship between the acceptance of be-havioral management methods and the previous history of a pediatric dental visit, age, and mothers’ education. Conclusion: There was a significant inverse relationship between acceptance of the tell-show-do behavioral management method and mothers’ anger expression. However, there is no significant relationship between other methods and mothers’ anger expression. According to this study, there was a relation between mothers ages and their acceptance of using a mouthpiece.