Thaumaturgical Distraction as a Modality for Reducing Dental Anxiety in Children: A Systematic Review

Dental fear and anxiety have become a major obstacle for children to accept dental treatment. Dental anxiety ranks fifth among common fears.

The aim of this current systematic review is to assess the effect of thaumaturgical distraction in reducing anxiety in children undergoing dental procedures.

This current systematic review was registered in Prospero (CRD42023411750) following PRISMA guidelines. Electronic searches were performed in the databases: PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. The search was conducted from inception to March 1, 2024. A broader search strategy was used to prevent missing articles. The search was performed using broad terminology: ((thaumaturgy) OR (magic)) AND (dental). ResearchGate was also consulted, and cross-references were reviewed on this topic to extract all available literature. Only randomized controlled trials are included for data synthesis. Narrative and systematic literature reviews are excluded. Evaluation of the risk of bias is planned using the ROB2 criteria of the Cochrane Collaboration.

A total of 798 titles were screened by title and abstract rigorously by three independent evaluators. After duplicate exclusion and removal of irrelevant titles, 11 articles were included for full-text analysis, of which 6 qualified for final data synthesis.

Within the limits of the available studies, significantly lower anxiety is exhibited in the children treated under the thaumaturgical distraction group as opposed to the control group.

Lekhwani P, Tirupathi S, Afnan L. Thaumaturgical Distraction as a Modality for Reducing Dental Anxiety in Children: A Systematic Review. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2024;17(11):1296-1301.