Abstract
Introduction: Dental anxiety is common and causes symptomatic use of oral health services.
Objectives: The aim was to study if a short-term virtual reality intervention reduced preoperative dental anxiety.
Methods: A randomized controlled single-center trial was conducted with 2 parallel arms in a public oral health care unit: virtual reality relaxation (VRR) and treatment as usual (TAU). The VRR group received a 1- to 3.5-min 360° immersion video of a peaceful virtual landscape with audio features and sound supporting the experience. TAU groups remained seated for 3 min. Of the powered sample of 280 participants, 255 consented and had complete data. Total and secondary sex-specific mixed effects linear regression models were completed for posttest dental anxiety (Modified Dental Anxiety Scale [MDAS] total score) and its 2 factors (anticipatory and treatment-related dental anxiety) adjusted for baseline (pretest) MDAS total and factor scores and age, taking into account the effect of blocking.
Results: Total and anticipatory dental anxiety decreased more in the VRR group than the TAU group (β = −0.75, P <.001, for MDAS total score; β = −0.43, P <.001, for anticipatory anxiety score) in patients of a primary dental care clinic. In women, dental anxiety decreased more in VRR than TAU for total MDAS score (β = −1.08, P <.001) and treatment-related dental anxiety (β = −0.597, P =.011). Anticipatory dental anxiety decreased more in VRR than TAU in both men (β = −0.217, P <.026) and women (β = −0.498, P <.001).
Conclusion: Short application of VRR is both feasible and effective to reduce preoperative dental anxiety in public dental care settings (ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03993080). Knowledge Transfer Statement: Dental anxiety, which is a common problem, can be reduced with short application of virtual reality relaxation applied preoperatively in the waiting room. Findings of this study indicate that it is a feasible and effective procedure to help patients with dental anxiety in normal public dental care settings.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 312-318 |
Number of pages | 7 |
Journal | JDR Clinical and Translational Research |
Volume | 5 |
Issue number | 4 |
Early online date | 21 Jan 2020 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 1 Oct 2020 |
Keywords
- clinical studies/trials
- dental care
- dental fear
- public sector
- relaxation technics
- virtual reality immersion
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Dentistry