Effect of virtual reality on pain perception during local anesthesia injection in pediatric dentistry: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Description :

This study is to explore the effect of virtual reality on pain perception in pediatric patients undergoing local anesthesia injection. In order to do that, patients enrolled in the study will consist of 40 children between the age of 6 and 9 years undergoing at least one invasive procedure requiring local anesthesia. These patients will be randomly assigned to control or experimental groups. Conventional “tell show do” technique will be provided in both groups. As for the experimental group, a standardized short video (length of 5 min) of Tom and Jerry will be used for the children in this group. As the primary outcome, pain perception will be assessed using the FLACC scale collected by an external observer and the Wong-Baker pain scale administered to the child. As for the secondary outcome, dental anxiety will be assessed by measuring patients’ heart rate at several points during the experiment via the pulse oximeter applied to the child’s finger. Patient’s demographics and child’s baseline anxiety level will be collected through 2 separate questionnaires administered to the parents prior to the start of the experiment