From the Zagreb congress: dental fear affects 25 to 30% of children worldwide

Prevention, MIH and fear of the dentist on the list of topics

Acta Stomatologica Croatica has published the book of abstracts of the congress "Current Practice in Croatian Pediatric Dentistry – 2025", held on 5 and 6 December 2025 at the Hotel International in Zagreb. The meeting was organised by the Croatian Society of Paediatric and Preventive Dental Medicine of the Croatian Medical Association, the Croatian Dental Society of the Croatian Medical Association and the School of Dental Medicine of the University of Zagreb; the congress president was Hrvoje Jurić and the book of abstracts was edited by Kristina Goršeta.

Prevention was the backbone. An invited lecture on teamwork states that up to 90% of pathological conditions — primarily diseases of the hard dental tissues — can be prevented. Christian Splieth from Greifswald spoke about translating evidence-based guidelines into practice and about autotransplantation in early loss of permanent teeth in children and adolescents, where the first permanent molars are most often affected.

Kristina Goršeta covered molar-incisor hypomineralisation (MIH) as a developmental enamel disorder with esthetic, functional and psychological consequences, where the range of intervention runs from sealing and fillings to crowns in severe cases. Ivana Čuković-Bagić went through six drug groups a paediatric dentist must know: analgesics, systemic antibiotics, antimicrobial preparations, antifungals for candidiasis, antivirals and topical corticosteroids. Tomislav Škrinjarić recalled that sedation exists as a continuum and that the three standard techniques are inhalational, oral and intravenous.

The most concrete figure came from the systematic review by Walter Dukić and Lucija Koturić Čabraja on dental anxiety in children: the prevalence is around 25 to 30% globally, and the factors listed include the child's age and sex, previous experience of caries and the influence of parents. Higher anxiety is associated with children with a high dmft index and with those who do not attend regular check-ups.

Limitations

This is a book of congress abstracts rather than peer-reviewed full papers; a considerable share of the poster communications are individual case reports, so those findings cannot be generalised.

For your practice

• Record dental anxiety as a finding, not as a trait of the child: age, previous caries and parental behaviour are factors that can be acted upon.
• In a child with MIH, plan treatment in steps, from sealing and fillings towards crowns, and explain that sequence to the parent at the very first visit.
• If you provide sedation, match the technique to the level of monitoring you can guarantee — the difference between conscious and deep sedation lies in monitoring and in the clinician's responsibility.