Stress Reactions of Various Judging Groups to the Child Dental Patient

Dental personnel representing various levels of clinical experience and education in pedodontics were shown slides of potentially stressing situations within the field of pedodontics. Stress was identified through voice analysis by the Psychological Stress Evaluator (PSE-101)*. Clinical experience and education in pedodontics does not decrease either absolute or relative amounts of stress. Visual stimuli are capable of eliciting a stressful response. Trained raters can interpret voice prints with a satisfactory degree of inter-rater reliability. The PSF-101 is a valid indicator of stress.