Into the Jaws of Anxiety

As he climbs into the dentist's chair for the first time,
three-year-old Danny clearly would rather be somewhere else. He's already
squirming like a hooked trout and seems on the verge of tears. The most
probable explanation for Danny's anxiety is:

1. The office sound system is playing Neil Diamond again.
2. Danny is just a nervous kid.
3. Danny's mother, no fan of dentists herself, transmitted her own
   anxiety to her son.

Many dentists would blame Danny's nervousness on more, but a study
at North Carolina State University suggests that the second explanation
is correct. Researchers videotaped the dental debuts of 46
three-year-olds and noted any anxious behavior, from fidgeting to
outright attempts to flee the chair.

Meanwhile, the mothers reported how anxious they felt about their
child's examination and about their own dental visits. They also filled
out questionnaires designed to estimate their child's day-to-day
anxiety level.

The result: "A mother's anxiety did not appear to affect her
child," says NCSU psychologist Lynne Baker-Ward. The best predictor
of a kid's anxiety level inside the dentist's office, it turned out, was
his anxiety level outside the dentist's office. Although nervous toddlers
did have nervous moms, the mothers seemed to be responding to the kid's
anxiety, rather than vice versa.

The researchers' conclusions were bolstered by an experiment in
which some families watched a reassuring dental video before their
appointment. Mothers who saw the video said they felt less nervous about
their child's visit. If maternal anxiety were truly influencing the kids,
the children should have been more relaxed, too. But the kids displayed
as much anxious behavior as peers whose moms hadn't seen the
video.

Parental anxiety may become more of a factor in later visits. The
child's own dental experiences, as well as those of siblings and peers,
probably play a greater role as well.