Restorative dentistry for preschool children.

Successful management of the behavior of the preschool child is a prerequisite for the dental experience to be pleasant for both the child and the dentist. There are many ways for the dentist to interface with children, but none is as desirable with cooperative or potentially cooperative preschool children than techniques in the linguistic domain. Fortunately, because most children are very competent in communicating in language sometime around their third birthday, such techniques are reliably effective with preschool children. Knowing the reasons why a seemingly potentially cooperative preschooler may not be so is important to the dentist seeking mastery skills in working with this age group. Another extremely important issue in behavioral pediatric dentistry at this time is the role of the parents in the dental appointment and their right to informed consent for certain behavioral management strategies.