Does animal-assisted therapy help reduce dental anxiety?

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In this blog Rebecca Manson considers a systematic review assessing whether the use of animal-assisted therapy helps reduce anxiety during dental care in children and adolescents.

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Adult dental anxiety – management strategies

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This review of current management strategies for adult patients with dental anxiety in the dental clinic included 54 studies. Most of the psychotherapeutic behavioural strategies provided some benefits but there was limited supporting evidence for some approaches. Pharmocological approaches were not included.

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Psychological techniques for children with autism spectrum disorder

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This review of the effectiveness of behaviour management and modification strategies for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to overcome the anxiety and discomfort associated with receiving dental care includes 15 studies. The findings are inconclusive as the included studies had small sample sizes, several lacked control groups and the majority of studies were at high risk of bias.

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Dental neglect in children and adolescents -prevalence and risk factors

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This review of the prevalence of dental neglect and risk factors in children and adolescents included 10 observational studies. A high prevalence of dental neglect (range 10% to 83%) and caries ( range 38.9% to 99% )was identified.

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Parental presence and children’s dental anxiety

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This review of whether parents’ presence in the room influences children’s behaviour, anxiety and fear during dental treatment included 16 studies. The findings suggest that parents’ presence in the operation room does not influence children’s (up to 12 years old) behaviour, anxiety and fear during dental treatment. However the included studies are all at high risk of bias so the certainty of the evidence is very low.

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Dental Fear in Adults

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This review aiming to estimate the global prevalence of dental fear in adults included 31 observational studies the majority of which were at high risk of bias. The findings suggest an overal prevalence of 15.3 % (95%CI; 10.23 to 21.15%).

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Aromatherapy and dental anxiety

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This review of the efficacy of aromatherapy on dental anxiety included 17 studies (11 RCTs, 6 CCTs). The evidence suggets aromatherapy may reduce dental anxiety and has comparable effects on dental anxiety compared to music intervention but the evidence is limited and of low to very low certainty

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Vibration devices: Do they reduce pain linked to dental injections in children?

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This review evaluating the effect of vibration devices on paediatric dental injection pain reduction identified 6 RCTs. The findings suggest that the use of the DentalVibe was not effective but the evidence ws of low quality.

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Dental Anxiety: Prevalence in children and adolescents

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This review of the global prevalence of dental anxiety in children and adolescents included 50 studies reported in 57 papers. The findings showed that dental anxiety is a frequent problem in 3‐ to 18‐year‐olds worldwide being commoner in schoolchildren and preschool children than in adolescents.

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Local anaesthetic for dental treatment: interventions to improve acceptance in children

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Twenty six RCTs were included in this Cochrane systematic review of methods for the acceptance of local anaesthesia (LA) in children and adolescents during dental treatment. However the trials did not provide sufficient evidence to draw firm conclusions as to the best interventions

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