Therapy Dog Support in Pediatric Dentistry: A Social Welfare Intervention for Reducing Anticipatory Anxiety and Situatio
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Therapy Dog Support in Pediatric Dentistry: A Social Welfare Intervention for Reducing Anticipatory Anxiety and Situational Fear in Children Aviva Vincent1 · Masahiro Heima2,3 · Kathleen J. Farkas1
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
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. Keywords Veterinary social work · Human-animal interaction · Pediatric dentistry · Oxytocin · Anticipatory anxiety · Dental fear Social welfare seeks to understand individuals within the context of their environment. For the majority of Americans, * Aviva Vincent [email protected] Masahiro Heima [email protected]‑u.ac.jp 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
2
School of Dental Medicine, Case Western Reserve University, 2124 Cornell Road, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA
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
dogs are prominent in environment either by interaction or ownership (Risley-Curtiss, Rogge & Kawam, 2013). It is likely that children have had positive interactions with dogs given their prevalence in America—
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