Strategies to Design Dental Clinic for Children with Mental Health Promotion Approach in the Treatment Process

Abstract

Dental Clinic is one of the places that severely affect children's mental states. Poor design of such environments, regardless of the needs of children, has aggravated fear and anxiety in them and ignoring this issue will have negative effects. The fundamental problem that exists today is ignoring and neglecting children. Because children are at an age that are not able to participate in the public sphere independently, so they are ignored. Parents, irrespective of them, take their children to clinics for treatment which are not designed for them. Fear of dental clinic causes behavioral problems such as aggressiveness in children and a lack of proper control will endanger children's health. The purpose of this research is to design and evaluate environmental factors effective in reducing fear and anxiety in children and providing strategies to promote their mental health. To achieve these objectives, data are collected through field and desk as well as documentation method and some specific solutions are provided for designing children's dental clinic which creates a pleasant environment with flexible spaces adapted to their age group in the treatment process. The results of this study suggest that attractiveness of natural environment, environmental graphics, play spaces, color and light can have a direct impact on improving the treatment process.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n4S1p46