Giving Children a Voice About Their Dental Care

Purpose: To assess young children's views of their experiences of dental treatment.

Methods: Forty-two four- to seven-year-old children were recruited between August and December 2017. Half were asked to tell the interviewer about their recent dental treatment and the remaining half were asked to draw at the same time they talked about this treatment. Only children's verbal responses were coded, not the content of their drawings.

Results: Drawing while talking increased the amount of neutral information that children verbally reported and helped to overcome limitations in language skills. Children talked primarily about emotionally neutral information. They talked about things that they did and did not like, and provided suggestions about how their experience of dental treatment could be improved.

Conclusion: Drawing during the interview helped children talk about their experiences of dental treatment. Gaining children's insights in this way could be used to optimize their oral health.