Effect of an innovative relaxation technique on dental anxiety among 8- to 11-year-olds during infiltrative anesthetic procedures: a randomized control trial

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Dental procedures especially involving local anesthesia have ranked highest in anxiety as the anaesthetic needle's appearance and feel are the most fear eliciting stimuli in children. AIM: To evaluate the efficacy of an innovative reframing behaviour management technique by the combination of breathing and foot rotation in reducing dental fear. METHOD: In this randomized control trial, 50 children aged 8- 11 years of age, requiring local anesthesia in the maxillary arch and also based on inclusion criteria were selected. Subjects were divided by using flip of coin method of randomization. Children in the test group were taught to carry out deep breathing and simultaneous feet rotation in which the right foot was rotated in clockwise and left foot in anticlockwise direction. The exercises were asked to perform while the local anaesthesia was injected. No exercises were performed in control group. CFSS-DS scale was used as a tool and children fearful for injection were included. Pulse rate, SPO2 were used as physiologic parameters while FLACC scale was used to analyze fear. RESULT: In our study which included both subjective and objective recordings of anxiety during anaesthesia statistically significant variation between the two groups was observed. The FLACC score and pulse rate showed a statistically significant difference (p value <0.05) in the intervention group. There was a marked reduction for fear of injections after the treatment in case group. CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of the study, the innovative exercise reduced the anxiety in children during anesthetic procedures and can be used as an alternative behaviour management strategy.