Dental anxiety in children could be reduced with cartoons

dental anxiety
Dental anxiety could be reduced if children watch their favourite cartoons whilst being treated

Watching cartoons whilst receiving treatment could help reduce children’s dental anxiety and distress, a new study has shown.

The study, published in Acta Odontologia Scandinavica, randomly assigned 56 ‘uncooperative’ children aged seven to nine either a visual distraction (eg watching cartoons via an eyeglass system) or no distraction, and it found the children who were distracted with cartoons showed significantly less anxiety and more cooperation than those with no distraction.

The authors conclude that audiovisual distraction can be a useful technique to calm children and ensure that they can be given the dental treatment they need, before recommending larger studies are carried out to confirm the results.

Dental anxiety

Dental phobia is very common, with around 20% of school-aged children afraid of the dentist, the study estimates.

It claims children with dental phobias experience more dental pain due to being more disruptive during dental treatments.

Favorite
Get the most out of your membership by subscribing to Dentistry CPD
  • Access 600+ hours of verified CPD courses
  • Includes all GDC recommended topics
  • Powerful CPD tracking tools included
Register for webinar
Share
Add to calendar