Abstract
The authors analyzed the psychosocial background of an 11 year 7 month old female child who experienced difficulty in her dental treatment due to being unable to follow the instructions of her dentist which resulted from her being unable to communicate verbally with the dentist. The child refused to attend school, and showed weak responses to stimulation and a tendency to retire within herself when she felt anxious: there facts were considered to indicate a low level of self-confidence. Therefore, in order to reduce the level of her anxiety and tension resulting from the dental treatment, we included sedation through inhalation of nitrous oxide-oxygen in her treatment as a method of systematic desensitization, one form of behavioral therapy. We reduced the concentration of nitrous oxide and the inhalation time at each step of the treatment, and at the same time, we praised her attitude toward the treatment to increase her confidence in the treatment. As a result, she became capable of following the dentist's instructions from the 9 th treatment, and thus could subsequently be treated under normal conditions.
