Association between Virtual Reality Distraction on Anxiety and Pain in Primary Schoolchildren during Infection Dental Anesthesia

Abstract

Background: In dentistry, a variety of strategies has been employed with remarkable success in managing anxiety in young children, particularly during the administration of local anesthesia. Virtual reality is one of the most recent inventions in technology. This study sought to determine how distraction from virtual reality affected children's anxiety and pain during infiltration anesthesia. Methods: Children from primary schools between the ages of 6 and 12 who needed dental work done under infiltration anesthesia were chosen at random to participate in a test in the pediatric dentistry program at Al-Farahidy University. During the first visit, local anesthetic was given while the participants wore virtual reality goggles to view a cartoon. On their second visit, while local anesthetic was being administered, kids watched a cartoon movie on a screen. When the patient is seated in the dentist chair for the baseline measurement, when the video is on, and when topical anaesthetic is applied, the heart rate was measured using a pulse oximeter to determine anxiety in both situations. Using the Wong-Baker FACES scale, pain was assessed. Results: Overall, 50 people with an average age of 8.4 1.46 years participated. A total of 29 participants, or 58.0%, were female. The mean heart rate of the test group was considerably higher than that of the control group at every time point except baseline. Regardless of the distraction approach used, multiple regression analysis revealed that younger individuals and females had higher mean FLACC behavioural pain assessment scale ratings (P = 0.034 and P = 0.004, respectively). After adjusting for all other factors, people who were younger and those with greater baseline heart rates reported higher mean Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale scores (P = 0.031 and P = 0.010, respectively).

Conclusion: Regardless of the type of distraction utilised, women and younger age groups were more likely to report experiencing more discomfort following local anaesthetic injection.