Purpose: To determine the contemporary educational experiences of predoctoral dental students in the United States and Canada regarding behaviour guidance (BG) of the child patient and assess trends from a previous study in 2004.
Methods: Data were collected from 32 predoctoral paediatric dentistry programme directors in the United States and Canada via a web-based survey.
Results: The didactic curriculum hours devoted to the teaching of BG techniques in 2019 are similar to 2004. A majority (60.7%) of programmes do not have a formal assessment of competency with BG techniques. Lectures (n = 28), clinical experience (n = 28) and observation (n = 26) were the most common techniques implemented to teach BG techniques, and tell-show-do (100%), non-verbal communication (82.1%), positive reinforcement (89.3%) and distraction (82.1%) were the techniques that more than 75% of dental students most commonly have hands-on experience with during their dental education. In 2019, students tended to have more hands-on experience with nitrous oxide/oxygen inhalation and less hands-on experience with aversive techniques and sedation.
Conclusions: The majority of dental schools do not have a formal competency in BG of the child patient. Compared with 2004, nitrous oxide/oxygen is used more by dental students and there is less predoctoral education in aversive BG techniques.
Keywords: child behaviour; dental education; paediatric dentistry.
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