Dental treatment of fearful children using nitrous oxide. Part 4: Anxiety after two years.

A group of highly fearful children were treated using behavioral management, or nitrous oxide and behavioral management. This article describes the childrens' fears during the first curative treatment one to two years after the first treatment phase, and to study whether the reduction in the child's anxiety level found previously is of a permanent nature. The results of this study indicate that fear reduction using behavioral management is not permanent: the first curative treatment after seventy-two weeks results in significantly higher fear scores (PS). When combining the behavioral management with nitrous oxide, the fear scores show the same low level as at the previous treatment. The fear score during the last session of a course of treatment is clearly related to the score of the following curative session, even if it takes place two years later.