Abstract
To investigate the visual response of child patients, when dental instruments are passed between the dentist and hygienist, we produced a video showing a dentist and a hygienist exchanging mouth mirrors and tweezers, and presented it to 39 infant subjects individually. Using the Visicon Eye-camera, we measured the eye movements of the children as they watched, for the sake of analysis. The findings are as follows:
1. When the mirror was being passed between the dentist and hygienist,20 children fixed their eyes on the dentist first,8 on their mothers at chairside, another 8 on other things,2 on the hygienist and 1 on the act of giving and taking the mirror. In the case of the tweezers,16 subjects looked at the dentist first,9 at other things,7 at the hygienist,5 at their mothers and 2 at the exchange.
2. As for number of times their eyes fell on the mirror as it was being exchanged, the handover action scored the largest number with 152 times, followed by the dentist with 135 times, other things with 51 times, the hygienist with 20 times and mothers with 3 times in that order. In the case of the tweezers, the handover action also came first with 334 times, followed by the dentist with 91 times, the hygienist with 37 times, other things with 15 times and mothers with 8 times.
3. Of the subjects,87.2% showed a reaction to the delivery of the mirror. Of this figure,76.5% reacted upon hearing the dentist speaking to the hygienist and 23.5% when theu saw the dentist's hand extending. In the case of the tweezers,97.4% of the subjects reacted, of which 92.1% reacted to the dentist's voice and 7.9% to the dentist's hand movement.
4. The percentage of the subjects whose eyes were caught by the mirror was 23.1%, of which 5.1%fixed their eyes on the mirror surface. The tweezers caught the eye of 25.6% of the children, of which 2.6% fastened their eyes on the tips of the tweezers.
From the above, we concluded that the children did not actually perceive the dental instruments visually. They reacted instead to the movement of the dentist and the hygienist as the mirror and the tweezers were being passed.
