Sequential Changes in Response to Dental Procedures

¹ Department of Pedodontics, Eastman Dental Center, Rochester, New York, USA 14603 and Department of Psychology, Adelphi University, Garden City, New York, USA 11530

This portion of a study that involved children 8, 10, 12, and 14 years of age, was concerned with cardiac rate as a function of age, type of dental procedure and repetitive exposure to the dental treatment situation. It was consistently found that as children become more experienced with dental procedures and the dental treatment environment, their arousal level is reduced. Similarly, as a child becomes older, he becomes less autonomically responsive to dental treatment, as he does to many other stimuli.