Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible psychic trauma caused by applying the restrainer to children during dental treatment, and to elucidate the relationship between the psychic trauma and the adaptability to the clinical circumstances of the children and their mothers. Whether application of the restrainer should be encouraged or not is discussed according to the results obtained.
The complete failure of the attempt at persuasion, the tell-show-do, and the hand-over-mouth exercises to the children who resisted the treatment, finally led to the introduction of the restrainer.
Before and after treatment,43 child patients aged 3 to 5 years and their mothers were assessed with the color pyramid personality test (CPT), which is an objective test using a projective technique. According to the checklist and rating method of Kurosu, K. et al. (1979), moment-by-moment responses of the children to treatment were checked according to the list of disruptive behaviors and were rated according to four point scales; 4, cooperative like an adult; 3, tensive, but no movement; 2, little movement of the limbs; 1, violent movement of the trunk, head and limbs.
Mothers were requested to sit and watch their children during the treatment. Significant positive correlation effecients between the first and second scores of the CPT seem to indicate that the psychological tests were so properly practiced that the results are very reliable.
Results obtained were as follows.
(1) The relevant dimension of the personality to the adaptation of the children to dental treatment was related to the width of the psychological life span expressed by the items of the sequence formula in the CPT. Other items in the CPT, such as the creative and synthesis ability, and the extratensiveintroversive type of personality were irrelevant.
(2) The children who achieved a good score with the constant sum in the sequence formula of the CPT, showed a high mental ability to accept external matters through less selective judgements and the cooperative and tranquil behavior during treatment. There was, however, no significant correlation between mothers' personality attitude and their children's behavior.
(3) The application of the restrainer increased the non-selective acceptability of the children, and the ability of the mothers to accept external stimuli with proper selectivity, which is a feature of the maturation of personality in adults. From these results, the application of the restrainer effected no psychic trauma on the children nor on their mothers, and the application should be more or less encouraged. However, it must be taken into account that the application of the restrainer in the present investigation was only resorted to as a last mean after the failure of all other exercises, such as the tell-show-do, the persuasion and the hand-over-mouth.
