Attitude of dental practitioners and parental acceptance in using Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) in behaviour management of pediatric patients

• Author Details:   
• Harshita Shukla ^*
• Sadanand Kulkarni
• Ashish Bhondey
• Sneha Khekade
• Durga Bhattad
• Nilesh P. Rojekar

Aim: To evaluate the acceptance of Dentist, Parents and child to therapy pets, child’s choice of pet and to analyse attitude of dentist towards animal-assisted therapy in the paediatric dental et-up as an aid to improve behaviour of the child during the dental treatment.

Materials and Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was conducted among 60 children and their parents and 108 dentists. Chi-square test was used to determine the association of independent variables with each of the main outcome of interest.

Results: The consent to the presence of pet was given by 56.67% parents (p=0.0359, Significant) Children who chose dog as their preferred
pet were 46.67% those who chose cat as their preferred pet were 25% (p=0.049, Significant) Almost 76% Dentist agreed that AAT helps in behaviour management for Pediatric dentist (p=0.0001,S).

Conclusion: Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) can prove to be a good behaviour management technique and can be a part of the exclusive Pediatric dental clinic.

Keywords: Animal-assisted therapy, Pediatric Dentist