Efficacy of Application of Communication, Home and Homar Distraction Methods of Dental Anxiety in Children - a Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial

Abstract

Background & Rationale

 Though several interventions have been developed over time to manage these children the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry has laid focus on Non Pharmacological approaches among which Communication, Home and Homar distraction methods  were chosen for a comparative basis for the study.

A young child’s cognitive development does not have the conceptual framework to understand a dentists’ claim, which needs to be communicated effectively. Communication is a team effort involving the child, dentist and the support staff. The communication process comprises of the message, messenger and the receiver. Message conveyed must be clear, simple and designed to adapt to the child’s level of understanding.

Home- is the abbreviation for Hand Over Mouth Exercise. It is used by the dentist in an apparently healthy child to gain attention to the child. Once the child stops crying the exercise is discontinued.

Homar- is the abbreviation for Home with airway restriction.

With this basic notion, the study was undertaken. This study aims to investigate the application of three different distraction methods in children at the dental operatory

Methodology

This was a controlled trial. The samples were simple random in nature and  consisted of 75 children equally divided among the three groups in the pediatric age groups..

Statistical Analysis

Statistical analysis was done using IBM SPSS version for windows. Statistical significance was set at P < / = 0.05. Kolomogrov- Smirnov and Shapiro- Wilk’s tests were used for testing the normality of data. Intra group comparison was done using Friedman’s test and Wilcoxon-signed rank tests. Inter group comparison was done using  Kruskall – Wallis and Mann –Whitney  tests.

Results

 All the groups showed significant reduction in dental anxiety among children.

Conclusion

Distraction techniques have proved to be a major break through in behavior management forums. This study contributes to the literature on non pharmacological methods. The study has to be repeated further on increased population grounds to check if the findings are replicable and consistent.