Essential reading

There is a lot of research and guidance out there, but unfortunately, most of it is behind a paywall, and so you may not be able to access it. What I’ve done here is signposted some of the more useful free resources. My focus, as always, is on practical clinical advice rooted in the evidence. In no particular order, here is my top three:

1. Living Life to The Full by the team at Sheffield.
   An excellent resource for children and young people who are dentally anxious. There is a range of free resources on the site, including online learning for patients and dentists alike. And it’s all free!

2. An example of the MCDAS Faces scale being used by Turner et al.
   MCDAS Faces is one of the more widely known and evidenced tools for measuring dental anxiety. This paper lets you have a look at it and see what completing it involves for patients.

3. Update of Non-pharmacological behaviour management guideline for BSPD by the British Society of Paediatric Dentistry. Structured review that gives an overview of the most commonly used behaviour management techniques.

4. Behavior Guidance for the Pediatric Dental Patient Well written and comprehensive guidance from our friends across the pond. Definitely worth a look.