Children's attitudes toward behavior management techniques used by dentists.

PURPOSE: Many behavior management techniques (BMTs) are used in dental offices. The objective of this study was to evaluate how children felt towards the BMT used in the dental office by using the newly invented "attitude meter." METHODS: Two hundred forty children 6 to 17 years old were selected randomly to participate in the study. Each student was asked to watch 8 video scenes of live BMTs. The BMTs used consisted of: (1) tell-show-do (TSD); (2) rewards; (3) general anesthesia; (4) papoose board; (5) hand-holding; (6) mouthprop; (7) voice control; and (8) hand-over-mouth exercise (HOME). After watching each BMT scene, the children were instructed to express their attitude towards the BMT by drawing a "line of favor"--the newly invented attitude meter. RESULTS: It was found that TSD and HOME were the most and least favorite BTM, respectively. Those who had dental experience appeared to have worse attitudes. Older and younger children had different opinions towards some BMTs. The older children preferred the papoose board and hand-holding to the mouthprop. All children preferred the use of the papoose board and hand-holding to voice control. CONCLUSIONS: Children appeared to judge a behavior management technique according to the way it looked. The "line of favor" is a reliable tool to measure attitudes of children over 6 years old.

Number of teeth and nutritional status in Thai older people.

OBJECTIVE: To assess the association between the number of natural teeth and nutritional status in older Thai people aged 60-74 years. RESEARCH DESIGN: A cross-sectional study. METHOD: Stratified purposive sampling from senior citizen centres, households in sub-districts and municipal communities in Chiang Mai metropolitan area. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The number of natural teeth and underweight status. RESULTS: Mean Body Mass Index was 22.1 (+/- 4.0) kg/m2 in the whole sample; 29.4% of the total sample were underweight. After controlling for confounders (personal income and age), there was a significant association between BMI and number of teeth. The crude odds ratio of underweight were 2.42 for 19 or less natural teeth and 2.84 for no natural teeth compared to 20 teeth or above (P < 0.001). A significant association was also found between number of natural teeth and being underweight (< 20 kg/m2) in the older age group (68-74 years) after controlling for personal income, gender, education and current smoking (odds ratio = 2.27, 95% CI = 1.25, 4.13). CONCLUSIONS: The results support the association between the number of natural teeth and being underweight.