Novel Animated Visual Facial Anxiety/Pain Rating Scale-Its reliability and validity in assessing dental pain/anxiety in children

Abstract

Determining dental anxiety in children is of prime importance in the first dental visit as it leaves an impact and influences future behavior towards dental treatment . For this purpose, subjective assessment measures such as pictorial scales are considered appropriate. To assess the validity and reliability of the novel Animated Visual Facial Anxiety/Pain Rating Scale (AVFP/ARS) for measuring dental anxiety in children during their first dental visit. Also, to compare this new scale with other standard scales like Facial Image Scale (FIS), Venham Picture Test (VPT), Wong-Baker Pain Rating Scale (WBPRS) and Chota Bheem Chutki Scale (CBCS). 61 children (4–14 years) comprising of 31 girls and 30 boys, who met inclusion criteria were divided into two groups depending on treatment procedure; Group I (class I restoration) and Group II (IANB). In both, the groups' anxiety was assessed using FIS, VPT, WBPRS, CBCS, and AVFP/ARS before, during and after the dental procedure. The obtained scores were analyzed using Pearson's product-moment coefficient. A strong correlation (p < 0.05) was found between AVFP/ARS and the other scales in Group I while in Group II a strong correlation (p < 0.05) was found between AVFP/ARS when compared to VPT and WBPRS scales indicating the good validity of AVFP/ARS for both Restoration and IANB groups. Our study suggests that AVFP/ARS can be used as a new tool to assess dental anxiety in children.