Traffic signal metaphor gets very well placed in children’s dentistry. The traffic signal symbolizes ‘Stop’ ‘Check’ and ‘Continue’ based on the status of the vehicles at the crossroads.
Depending on the chaos created by the multitude of emotions that a child may feel during the dental appointment, the treatment approach can be called ‘slow approach’ which uses traffic signal control.
Slow approach is the term coined in my practice to address the turbulences that vivid emotions can bring about.
During the routine checkup appointment after X-rays and clinical examination is completed, details of upcoming treatment needs is discussed and explained to the parents.
Once parents have understood and consented for the treatment, it’s now important to address the pivotal steps of the treatment to the child.
As child development psychology states that reasoning gives strength to understanding. If one is able to understand the ‘why’ behind doing something, they will be able to control the ‘how.’
In the language that the child can comprehend, the reasons behind the treatment can be explained, which then helps the child to cope better.
Explain all the steps of upcoming TX and then let the child know about the usage of stop, check and continue signals. Once they have the authority to control the proceedings of the appointment, they feel more confident and are thus able to follow the instructions in the best manner.
It’s also helpful to decide how much to do at any given stage. For example, if the child can only cope with procedure A for the day, then pushing them to procedure B might not be necessary.
On the contrary, it can lead to a borderline negative experience which will make the further treatment appointments less likely manageable.
All this information is shared with parents and the child in the first appointment. Benefits of doing this is that we gain confidence and trust of the child as well of the parent.
The basic intent behind all these key approaches is to keep instilling positive dental attitude for lifetime by creating positive experiences at each appointment visit.