Does Audiovisual Distraction Reduce Dental Anxiety In Children Under Local Anesthesia? A Systematic Review And Meta-analysis

Background: Dental anxiety(DA)in children is a physiological,behavioural and emotional reaction response to one or more threatening stimuli in the dental practice.Worldwide,dental anxiety in children has been a major concern for dentists for a long time;it is highly prevalent in child populations and may lead to deleterious oral health-related consequences.academic communities have outlined a series of behavior management techniques to address this problem in clinic practice,but the effect would be something to test.Audiovisual distraction is simple and easily managed and might exert a beneficial effect on anxiety in children.So we perform a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effects of audiovisual distraction on reducing dental anxiety in children during dental treatment under local anesthesia.Methods: The authors identified eligible reports published through August 2017 by searching PubMed,EMBASE,and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials.Clinical trials that reported the effects of audiovisual distraction on children’s physiological measures,self-reports and behavior rating scales during dental treatment met the minimum inclusion requirements.The authors extracted data and performed a meta-analysis of appropriate articles.Results: Nine eligible trials were included and qualitatively analyzed;some of these trials were also quantitatively analyzed.Among the physiological measures,heart rate or pulse rate was significantly lower(p=0.01)in children subjected to audiovisual distraction during dental treatment under local anesthesia than in those who were not;a significant difference in oxygen saturation was not observed.The majority of the studies using self-reports and behavior rating scales suggested that audiovisual distraction was beneficial in reducing anxiety perception and improving children’s cooperation during dental treatment.Conclusions: The audiovisual distraction approach effectively reduces dental anxiety among children.Therefore,we suggest the use of audiovisual distraction when children need dental treatment under local anesthesia.