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Therapy Dog Support in Pediatric Dentistry: A Social Welfare Intervention for Reducing Anticipatory Anxiety and Situational Fear in Children

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Abstract

Children often experience anticipatory anxiety and situational fear (AA&SF) as a common reaction to perceived environmental threats. Animal-assisted interventions (AAI) with certified therapy dogs have been increasing in commonality within social work and medical practice as a non-pharmaceutical intervention to increase relaxation. This pilot study explored the impact of certified therapy dogs on youth in a known AA&SF triggering experience – the dental office. Canine Support in Pediatric Dentistry was designed and evaluated as an innovative, non-pharmacological behavior management strategy to support children, ages 8–12, with known AA&SF of the dentist. A time-series design utilized a convenience sample (n = 18) for current patients with known AA&SF. Measures of survey, observation, and salivary analyte analysis assessed biopsychosocial changes, including a refined methodology for oxytocin. The intervention as deemed acceptability by guardians at a rate of 83%. Guardians further supported the intervention with 100% stating that the liked the therapy dog’s presence for their child. No safety issues were observed. Oxytocin trended positively from baseline across majority of sample; though not statistically significant. Cortisol tended to decreased over the three time points, while alpha-amylase appeared to follow the trend of oxytocin more than cortisol. The findings support that Canine Support in Pediatric Dentistry is a feasible AAI in the pediatric dental clinic, which provides a model generalizable to other medical environments and experiences that may provoke AA&SF in children. Collection and measurement of salivary analysis is a feasible and practical method to explore biopsychosocial change in social welfare research.

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Data Availability

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adjunct Faculty, Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Science, Case Western Reserve University, 10900 Euclid Avenue, 11235 Bellflower Road, Cleveland, OH, 44106-7164, USA

    Aviva Vincent & Kathleen J. Farkas

  2. School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 2124 Cornell Road, Cleveland, OH, 44106, USA

    Masahiro Heima

  3. Department of Social and Behavioral Medicine, Graduate School for Medical and Dental Sciences, Kagoshima University, 8-35-1 Sakuragaoka, Kagoshima-City, Kagoshima, 890-8544, Japan

    Masahiro Heima

Authors
  1. Aviva Vincent
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  2. Masahiro Heima
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  3. Kathleen J. Farkas
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Contributions

AV: substantial contribution to the conception, design, data analysis and interpretation, and discussion content. MH: substantial contribution to the conception, design, discussion content. KF: substantial contribution to the conception, IRB oversight, interpretation. All authors have approved the final version for submission.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aviva Vincent.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Ethics Approval

All applicable international, national, and/or institutional guidelines for the care and use of animals were followed. All procedures performed in studies involving therapy dog volunteers were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institution at which the studies were conducted (University and Hospital) and with the national organization for the certification of the therapy dogs.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all caregivers/parents of child participants, researchers, and dog-handler volunteers included in the study. Informed consent was obtained from all child participants, researchers, and dog-handler volunteers included in the study.

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Vincent, A., Heima, M. & Farkas, K.J. Therapy Dog Support in Pediatric Dentistry: A Social Welfare Intervention for Reducing Anticipatory Anxiety and Situational Fear in Children. Child Adolesc Soc Work J 37, 615–629 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10560-020-00701-4

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