Background and Aim: There is a shortage of empirical studies that combine the problem of malocclusion to the importance of the self-perception of the mouth/smile in the mental representation of the self-image of the face, which is the aim of the present qualitative and exploratory study. Subjects and Methods: The convenience sample consisted of 151 children and youngsters of both genders, aged 8-24 years, who used an orthodontic appliance for 6 months to 1 year, and were invited to draw two portraits of their mouth/smile before (M1) and after (M2) the use of an orthodontic appliance. Results: The main reasons that underpin the use of an orthodontic appliance are defined by the crooked teeth correction, malocclusion correction, and interdental spaces categories, in which having the perfect smile was only relevant to preteens. Discussion and Conclusions: In the present study, we have identified the orthodontic smile as a new categorization of a perfect smile associated with the social display of a look with perfect teeth.

The aim of the present study was to examine seven case studies and ascertain whether the imagos internalized by students of Fine Arts, a Young Person and an Elderly Person can be reworked, after the students have been submitted to a course in Anatomy. In the present study, we have combined two methods - gathering written responses and drawings - and examined what students know about the organs they drew and used a content analysis grid to evaluate the mental representation of the interior of the body of both profiles (Young Person and Elderly Person), before and after academic training (Anatomy classes). The preliminary data collected provided a prima facie scenario for the existence of at least one sequencial comulative progression in the development of the art students drawings. However further research is needed to establish the extent to which this finding might apply beyond the tasks assigned in the present protocol.

O presente artigo tem como objetivo desmistificar no âmbito de um ato pedagógico, i) o acontecimento desenvolvimentista da erupção dos dentes definitivos na criança; ii) sedimentar precocemente hábitos salutogénicos; e iii) elaborar instrumentos de Educação para a Saúde, evidenciando-se, assim, a importância da comunicação relacional e terapêutica no setting terapêutico de Medicina Dentária. As bases teóricas foram fundamentadas de acordo com Chernoff (1973); Dranka (2012); Magalhães et al. (2013); Mota-Cardoso (2012); Santos (2017). Foi realizado pelos discentes de um simulacro terapêutico-pedagógico em setting odontopediátrico com recurso à técnica do roleplaying, consolidando a vivência de um vínculo terapêutico, a acessibilidade e o fortalecimento dos discentes, no contexto da aprendizagem das suas capacidades comunicacionais. É consentâneo que o roleplaying, enquanto estratégia de ensino-aprendizagem permite que os discentes edifiquem conhecimentos sobre as suas (auto) capacidades comunicacionais a partir de uma reflexão crítica das suas próprias experiências e/ou dos seus pares.

Introduction Dental caries has a negative impact on children's oral health-related quality of life (QVRSO) [ 1 ], suggesting the need to understand how the oral clinical condition may interfere with the child's daily life. The acquisition of information that interacts with the child's mental schemas consolidates her ability to think inter and intrapsychic thought and knowledge of the world around her [ 2 ]. Same happens with the mental representation of the concept of caries that consequently influences the internalisation of salutogenic habits at the level of the biopsychosocial development of the infant patient [ 3 ]. In the present study we intend to evaluate the mental representation that children internalise about the concept of dental caries. Materials and methods The sample of the present study consists of a total of 880 children, from 4 to 9 years, of both genders (51.7% girls, 48.3% boys). Instruments: (i) Sociodemographic questionnaire, data on age, sex, schooling and whether or not the participant has already resorted to a Dental Medicine consultation. Procedures: Data was collected at two moments: M1, where the child was asked to draw a Healthy Tooth on a sheet of paper and M2, where the child was asked to draw a Sick Tooth on another sheet using only a pencil of graphite and no rubber. Subsequently, the child was asked to respond to an open-ended questionnaire composed by three distinct questions, with the aim of evaluating the mental representation of the concept of (a) Dental decay , (b) Healthy teeth and (c) Sick teeth . NVivo software was used in order to carry out the content analysis of the written narrative, referring only to the first question (a) What is a dental decay for you?. The written answers were subjected to a content analysis grid that encompasses 13 elementary analytical categories. Results Of note, 611 children who participated in the study had already attended a Dental Medicine consultation (69.4%), while 269 (30.6%) had never visited a health care unit. According to the results obtained in relation to the question (a) What is a dental decay for you?, 13 categories were created in which six were prominent, which seem to illustrate the mental representation of the concept of dental decay in this age group, namely: Do not know (18.5%), Bugs/Monsters (16.7%), Teeth damage (11%), Bad oral hygiene (9.6%), Rotten tooth (7.9%), Teeth colouration (7.3%), being curiously the category Bacteria, only referenced with a percentage of 2.2%. ...

Drawing as a projective technique allows the access to the child's intrapsychic experiences. Notoriously, the use of drawings has been known as a referential research instrument in qualitative Health studies. Objectives: This exploratory study aims at understanding the mental representation of the concept of a healthy tooth and of an unhealthy tooth, through anthropomorphized drawings made by children, aged 6-12 years. Methods: The sample consisted of 150 children of both genders who attended at least one dental appointment at a University Dental Clinic of a metropolitan urban area. Drawings that showed anthropomorphized teeth (n = 300) were selected to perform the content analysis of the anthropomorphized features. Results: There is a clear variation in the level of anthropomorphizing of teeth according to age and gender. Conclusion: The results point to an increase in subject's mental representation of reality in drawings in accordance to subject's age, most significantly from 10 years onwards.