aspects of life is gained formally in schools and colleges rather than from the family.
This is termed secondary socialization.
Interestingly, primary socialization can have a profound and lasting effect. For
example, fear of dental treatment and when we first begin to clean our teeth can often
be traced back to family influence. So parents can shape a child's expectations and
attitudes about oral health; thus, every attempt should be made to involve them when
attempting to offer dental care or change a child's health habits.
Involving parents means that the dentist must look to positive reinforcement rather
than 'victim blaming'. Parents who are accused of oral neglect may well feel
aggrieved or threatened. All too often children's oral health is compromised by a lack
of parental knowledge so programmes have to be carefully designed to reduce any
chances of making people feel guilty. Guilt often results in parents spending more
time in seeking excuses for problems than trying to implement solutions.
Parents who are convinced that their child has an oral health problem which can be
solved tend to react in a positive way, both to their dental advisor and the preventive
programme itself. It is especially helpful if the preventive strategy can include a
system of positive reinforcement for the child (Fig. 2.5). Features such as brushing
charts, diet sheets, gold stars for brushing well, extra pocket money for curtailing
thumb-sucking are all useful tips to help parents maintain a child's enthusiasm for a
particular dental project.
It must be emphasized that preventive programmes must be carefully planned to
include only one major goal at a time. Parents will be unable to cope if too much is
expected of them at any one time. Programmes that involve families have much
higher success rates than those which concentrate solely on the patient. Interestingly,
families also have a profound influence on levels of dental anxiety among their
children. Dentally anxious mothers have children who exhibit negative behaviour at
the dentist. Hence, the need for dentists to look 'beyond' the child when assessing the