Int J Paediatr Dent. 2021 Mar 18. doi: 10.1111/ipd.12787. Online ahead of print.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Local anesthesia (LA) administration provokes maximum dental anxiety in children. BrightHearts is a biofeedback relaxation application designed to reduce anxiety in children during pain inflicting procedural interventions.
AIM: To compare the effectiveness of biofeedback relaxation (BR) and audio visual distraction (AV) on dental anxiety among 7 – 12 year old children while administering LA DESIGN: A total of 70 children requiring dental treatment under LA for three visits were recruited for this single blinded randomized control trial. They were randomly divided into two equal groups. Group A received BR and the Group B received AV distraction during LA delivery in the first two visits and both groups did not receive any intervention during LA in third visit. Outcomes were measured using heart rate and a cartoon based anxiety measuring scale (Chotta Bheem Chutki (CBC) scale).
RESULTS: AV group had statistically significant higher mean heart rates than BR group (p<0.001) during needle penetration and post-intervention respectively. CBC scales showed no statistical differences between the groups.
CONCLUSION: Both the interventions are effective in reducing dental anxiety during LA administration. Based on objective measures, BR is found to be better than AV distraction. However subjective scores show no differences between the two.
PMID:33735517 | DOI:10.1111/ipd.12787
