The effects of graded exposure and parental modeling on the dental phobias of a four-year-old girl and her mother.

The current paper describes a unique case of a very young (4-year-old) dental phobic girl whose mother was also dental avoidant. Treatment of the girl involved a combination of graded exposure and utilizing the mother as a coping model. The results suggest that treatment was highly successful at least to a 6-month follow-up. Despite minimal direct intervention, results also indicated significantly reduced levels of dental fear in the dental-avoidant mother as well. Recommendations for intervention which involve parent modeling are discussed.