Parental acceptance toward behavior guidance techniques for pediatric dental visits: a meta-analysis

Abstract This study aimed to answer the following question: What is the proportion of acceptance reported by parents toward pediatric behavior guidance techniques (BGTs)? Observational studies that evaluated parental acceptance of BGTs during pediatric dental visits among parents of non-special health care need (non-SHCN) and SHCN children were included. A search of the Cochrane Library, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences (LILACS), MedLine/PubMed, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, in addition to gray literature, was performed until October 2021. The Joanna Briggs Institute Critical Appraisal Checklist for Analytical Cross-Sectional Studies was used for quality assessment. The certainty of evidence was assessed using the Recommendation, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (Grade). Fifty-three studies with 4868 participants were included, and 42 were retained for the random-effects proportion meta-analysis. The methodological quality varied from low to high. The agreement with the BGTs varied from 85.6% (95%CI: 77.5–92.1; p