Avaliação do nível de estresse de graduandos de odontologia em tratamentos de crianças não cooperativas.

Abstract

Treating uncooperative children is a challenge for pediatric dentistry, especially when extensive, invasive, and complex procedures are necessary. This behavior is responsible for increasing stress levels and affecting the performance of professionals and students. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the stress levels of dental undergraduates in treating uncooperative children. This is a cross-sectional, observational study that used a structured questionnaire containing demographic and student questions as a data collection instrument. Stress levels were assessed in relation to the treatment of cooperative and uncooperative children, and were classified on a Likert scale ranging from 0 (no stress) to 10 (severe stress). All data were analyzed using descriptive and analytical statistics, using the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests. The sample consisted of 91 undergraduate students from the eighth, ninth and tenth semesters of their undergraduate studies, who showed a higher mean level of stress when treating uncooperative children (8.01 ± 0.38) when compared to cooperative children (3.28 ± 0.70). The clinical procedures considered as potential stress generators in uncooperative children were tooth extraction (8.41 ± 2.05) and pulpotomy (8.30 ± 2.17), while in cooperative children they were pulpotomy (4.07 ± 2.62) and pulpectomy (4.05 ± 2.69). Regarding the treatments of cooperative children, stress levels were statistically higher in undergraduate students aged 24 or older when performing anesthesia and in the eighth semester when performing restorations. Furthermore, it was observed that there was no statistically significant difference between the level of stress in routine contact with children and the level of stress in treating uncooperative children with demographic and student data. Thus, it was observed that dentistry undergraduates present high levels of stress in pediatric dentistry, especially when performing tooth extractions and endodontic treatments on uncooperative children.