Effect of audiovisual eyeglasses during dental treatment in 5-8 year-old children

AIM: To evaluate the effect of Audiovisual (AV) eyeglasses on pain and anxiety levels during restorative treatment in 5-8 year-olds Thai children.

STUDY DESIGN: Forty-two children with bilateral carious molars were recruited and randomly divided into 2 groups according to the sequence of AV eyeglasses used. Group I was a group which received treatment without wearing AV eyeglasses in the first visit and wearing the eyeglasses in a second visit. Group II was vice versa. Treatments were done in 2 visits, 1 to 4 weeks apart. Self-reporting pain using the Faces Pain Scale-Revised (FPS-R), face, legs, activity, crying and consolability scale (FLACC) and heart rate (HR), were measured to assess pain and anxiety levels, respectively. Besides baseline, all variables were measured at the following periods: 1) pre-operation, 2) rubber dam placement, 3) the first use of high speed hand piece, and 4) five minutes interval during the remaining treatment.

RESULTS: There was no significant difference in gender (p=0.204) and treatment arch (p=0.292) using Chi-square test at p<0.05, previous dental experience (p=0.381) and treatment received (p=0.835) using Fisher's exact test at p<0.05, age (p=0.384, T-test at p<0.05), and treatment time (1st visit: p=0.465, 2nd visit: p=0.89, Mann- Whitney U test at p<0.05) between 2 groups. AV eyeglasses effectively reduced HR in pre-operation (p=0.043, T test at p<0.05) and FLACC scores in pre-operation (p=0.018, Mann-Whitney U test at p<0.05) and during the first use of high speed hand piece (p=0.047, Mann-Whitney U test at p<0.05). However, HR were decreased during rubber dam placement (p=0.002, T test at p<0.0), the first use of high speed hand piece (p=0.049, T test at p<0.05) and during remaining treatment (p=0.035, T test at p<0.05) in second visit as compared with the first visit with or without wearing the eyeglasses.

CONCLUSION: AV eyeglasses successfully reduced HR and physical distress during pre-operation and the first use of high speed hand piece. It could be used as an adjunctive distraction technique during dental treatment in children.