The aim of this study was to determine the attitude of general dentists in the Republic of Croatia toward working with children. The questionnaire survey involved 361 general dentists. The questionnaire was divided into three parts and contained 34 questions. The first part of the questionnaire survey contained demographic data questions. In the second part, dentists answered questions about the characteristics of the dental offices where they work, the materials that they mostly use, and how they work with children. The third part of the questionnaire referred to attitudes about working and treating young children and consisted of 12 statements, to which the answers were offered on a Likert scale from one to five. This study showed that only 12.46% of dentists have a positive attitude toward treating children and 30.19% of dentists have a negative attitude toward treating children. In addition, the attitude toward working with children correlates with both the knowledge they acquired during dental studies (R = 0.355; p ≤ 0.001) and gender (R = -0.103; p = 0.035). This study confirmed that women have a more often positive attitude toward treating young children. There was a major correlation between the level of education and positive attitudes toward treating children. The child's non-cooperative behavior was the main reason why general dentists refuse to work with children.
Keywords: child dental treatment; dental care; dentist attitude; pediatric dentistry.