Management of Dentally Anxious Adolescents with Retraining Technique: A Double-blind Randomized Controlled Clinical...

Anxiety toward dental treatment may be the reason for not only young children but also secondary school children to postpone dental treatment despite having severe pain. Hence this study was undertaken to recognize such anxious secondary school children prior to the treatment and tried to manage them with the retraining technique.

The present interventional study comprised 100 participants with highly anxious about dental treatment and were selected randomly within the secondary school age group of 11-16 years visiting the dental hospital. These selected participants were randomly allocated into two groups with 50 members in each group. Group I participants were managed with the retraining behavior management technique and in group II subjects retraining behavior management technique was not employed. Preinterventional and postinterventional dental anxiety (DA) scores were assessed using a Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). The data obtained was statistically analyzed with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 22 using the Wilcoxon sign ranked test.

There was a significant difference in preinterventional and postinterventional mean DA scores in group I treated with the retraining technique with no significant difference in group II.

The retraining technique can be used in managing highly anxious secondary school children during dental procedures.

Saraswati S, Saraswati SD, Mudusu SP, et al. Management of Dentally Anxious Adolescents with Retraining Technique: A Double-blind Randomized Controlled Clinical Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2023;16(S-2):S118-S121.