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Comparing Two Distraction Techniques with Illumination Caps for Assessing Dental Anxiety in Pediatric Patients during
Resham Payak1, Anshul Gangwar1, Chanchal Gangwar2
1Department of Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry, Institute of Dental Sciences, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, India.
Aims And Background:
Different distraction techniques have been used in dentistry and have shown great results in managing anxious pediatric patients, especially during local anesthesia (LA) administration. Various physiological parameters are used to measure anxiety, among which peripheral perfusion index (PI) provides information about vascular tone and fluid status by interpreting the data obtained from pulse oximetry. In the present study, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between anxiety and PI values and also compare different distraction techniques in single-visit pulpectomy.
Materials And Methods:
Healthy, cooperative 5-7 years old participants were selected for single-visit pulpectomy. Four groups were formed by simple random sampling. Group I (control), group II (illumination cap), group III (laser light), and group IV [audiovisual (AV)]. Two physiological parameters are recorded [pulse rate (PR), PI] at three intervals: (1) baseline-when the patient sat on the dental chair, (2) second reading-5 minutes after introduction of the distraction technique during LA administration, and (3) third reading-25 minutes after the second reading.
Results:
Intergroup comparison and post hoc analysis are done for all the groups with two key parameters. It has been found that the illumination cap group was most effective in reducing anxiety, followed by laser light, AV, and the control group (p-value < 0.05).
Conclusion:
PI can be used as an important parameter for assessing anxiety, and use of the illumination cap as a distraction tool can show promising results in reducing anxiety.
How To Cite This Article:
Payak R, Gangwar A, Gangwar C, et al. Comparing Two Distraction Techniques with Illumination Caps for Assessing Dental Anxiety in Pediatric Patients during Single-visit Pulpectomies Based on the Perfusion Index Parameter. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2026;19(3):331-336.
