CONCLUSION
anxiety
The presence of a dental therapy dog in an operatory room facilitates intraoral clinical examinations of pediatric patients referred to a specialist clinic due to anticipatory anxiety and situational fear.The use of a dental therapy dog in such a context was endorsed by PROMs and PREMs from the study participants and their parents/guardians. At the same time, the psychometric measures and physiological responses were indeterminate.An offer to have a trained dental therapy dog accessible in the dental operatory for new patients with anticipatory anxiety and situational fear may shorten the time required to conduct a clinical examination, enabling more referred patients to be examined within set time frames and limited resource settings.