389 - Pre-Operative Exposure Via Picture Book and Behavior

The objective of this study is to determine the strength of the correlation between exposure to dental procedures in an innocuous way and the level of fear/anxiety that patients have after exposure. The concept behind this study follows previously tested concepts in which fearful dental patients who were allowed to participate in tell-play-do had less dental anxiety than those who watched a live dental procedure (Vishwakarma AP, et al 2017). The study explored further different methods to ease fear and anxiety. As of now, cheaper treatment modalities for fearful and anxious patients can be invasive with sedation options ranging from PO sedation to IV sedation to even general anesthesia. Non medical anxiolysis is beneficial in that it poses less risk to the patient and may have broader parental acceptance. The proposed study was performed by providing children with a picture book detailing different dental procedures, along with appropriate patient behavior. Participants were selected based on their perceived level of anxiety using the visual anxiety scale. Heart rate and anxiety scores before and after exposure to picture book were compared to see if there is any reduction of anxiety.

Results: The results showed a statistically significant difference in heart rate and visual anxiety score. Based on the p values, both results were statistically significant.

Conclusion: Based on these preliminary results, more research in this field is needed to determine if exposure to pictures representing different aspects of dental procedures can help alleviating anxiety.
Study Limitations: Limited number of participants, short duration of the study and different age groups have different ranges of heart rates