Video modelling and reducing anxiety related to dental injections - a randomised clinical trial

This study was part of a successfully completed PhD and was presented at the IADR/AADR General Session (2013) in Seattle, Washington, USA. The report of this clinical trial conforms to the CONSORT statement.

A randomised controlled trial to investigate if video modelling can influence a child's anxiety before the administration of local anaesthesia (LA).

A sample of 180 (6- to 12-year-old) children due to have dental treatments under LA were randomly allocated to the modelling video or the control video (oral hygiene instruction). The level of anxiety was recorded before and after watching the video on the Abeer Children Dental Anxiety Scale (ACDAS) and the child's ability to cope with the subsequent procedure was assessed on the visual analogue scale (VAS). A two group chi-square test was used as the basis for the sample size calculation; a significance level of 0.025 was chosen rather than the conventional 0.05 to avoid spurious results arising from multiple testing.

Children in the test group had significantly less anxiety after watching the video than children in the control group throughout the subsequent dental procedure; in particular at the time of the LA administration (p <0.001).

Video modelling appeared to be effective at reducing dental anxiety and has a significant impact on needle phobia in children.