Anxiety perception among children following two different restorative modalities – A noninferiority randomized clinical trial

Abstract

Background: Anxiety perception among children plays a significant part in providing oral health care since both are interlinked. Perception refers to the ways or means by which anything is perceived or interpreted. Perception is awareness of the elements of the environment through physical sensation. As part of oral health-care initiation, the present study aimed to compare the anxiety perception among children following two different restorative modalities of atraumatic restorative treatment versus chemomechanical caries removal (CMCR). Methodology: A nonrandomized clinical trial was conducted over 2 months between February 20, 2021 and April 22, 2021, to compare the anxiety perception among children. Children below 14 years were selected for the study purpose. Results: Poisson regression analysis was used to evaluate the association between outcome and the variables. The results showed that the majority of children had dental anxiety issues, who were willing to improve their cooperative levels during dental treatment appointments. No statistically significant association was seen between the two different restorative modalities. Lower heart rate was observed when CMCR was used (P = 0.013). Conclusion: Anxiety perception among children plays a significant part in providing oral health care. The effectiveness of implementation was appropriate with regard to choosing the right treatment modalities among clinicians. Both the techniques showed minimal or lesser anxiety levels, but on a comparative note, CMCR was better, both in terms of patient acceptance and ease of performance.