Comparative evaluation of audio, audiovisual and virtual reality distraction techniques on dentally anxious children

To compare the efficacy of active and passive distraction techniques on anxious children.

A randomized control trial was carried out on 100 subjects between the age group of 7–10 years visiting the department of pediatric and preventive dentistry. All subjects in included were those that needed inferior alveolar nerve block for delivery of dental treatment at the same time it may be mentioned that only those subjects who exhibited dental anxiety were included. The subjects were subsequently divided into 4 groups of 25 each. Group I (control group) were administered LA with no behavior guidance technique used while subjects in groups II, III and IV were administered the same under the influence of audio, audiovisual and virtual reality distraction techniques respectively. Various subjective and objective scales were used to assess the anxiety levels of the children pre and post procedurally.

In this study most children were satisfied and comfortable with 3D Virtual Reality glasses and preferred to accept the treatment similarly in future visits. Satisfaction levels with audiovisual and audio group were less than that with the Virtual Reality glasses group. Control group were observed to show negativism.

In the present study VR group was found to be the most effective in reducing the anxiety levels in children followed by the audio visual group and audio group respectively.