CClinicalTrials.gg
RecruitingNCT05157438Updated Nov 18, 2023

Effect of VR vs Screens on Children's Dental Anxiety, Pain and Behavior

An interventional study of virtual reality device and screen programs in Dental Anxiety, sponsored by Cairo University. Recruiting at 1 site in Egypt. Open to participants aged 5 Years to 7 Years, including healthy volunteers. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2023-11-18.

Sponsored by Cairo University · Not applicable, Interventional, and Supportive care

From the registry’s dates

  • Primary completion was expected by Jan 2024, 2 years 9 months ago, but the record still lists the study as recruiting.
  • Started Oct 2023; still recruiting 3 years later.
Phase
Not applicable
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
42
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
5 Years to 7 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

Virtual reality distraction is intended to reduce the pain experience by distracting the patient attention from the pain stimulating procedure. Then, it breaks the cycle of negative experiences by improving the dental experience. The study's aim is to compare the effect of virtual reality to the effect of screen programs on dental anxiety, pain and behavior at different time points among children undergoing dental treatment under local anesthesia. The null hypothesis assumes that virtual reality has no effect on reducing the children's pain or anxiety and there is no difference between virtual reality and screen programs in improving the children's behavior and dental experience. The study's design is a cross-over, split mouth trial in which each patient will have similar dental treatments on each side, but with different distraction techniques.

Read the detailed description

Most of dental procedures are accompanied by pain and discomfort which subsequently adversely affect the patient's cooperation and willingness to complete or undergo the procedures. This negative behavior compromises the efficiency and quality of the delivered dental treatment, to the extent that it may not be completed. Therefore, behavior management techniques have been introduced to the field of pediatric dentistry to effectively manage the child anxiety and improve the child's experience in dental office to establish a positive child-dentist relationship. The virtual reality (VR) is considered a behavior management technique as well as a distraction tool, as it modifies the child's attitude. Thus, it can be used in the dental practice to help the dentist to control the child during the treatment procedure. The study's design is a cross-over, split mouth trial in which the procedure is planned to be on three visits, as the following: baseline visit (v0) for diagnosis, examination and inclusion, first visit (v1) and second visit (v2) for treatment sessions. A follow up visit (v3) may be needed for younger patients who need space maintenance for the extraction site. allocated and randomized equally into two groups according to the intervention assigned in the first treatment session: Group I (virtual reality group) and Group II (screen program group). In both groups, children will be allowed to choose an animation or cartoon from a list pre-prepared by the investigator in order to watch a show of their own choice, to augment the effect of distraction. Both groups will be managed and operated by the same operator who is the research investigator. Treatments were completed in two separate sessions, two weeks apart as a washout period, to avoid any carry-over effect. Each patient will have two teeth extracted, one on each side, on two successive visits, with two weeks apart as a washout period. The required sample size was calculated using the IBMª SPSSª Sample Powerª version 3.0.1 (IBMª Corp., Armonk, NY, USA). Subjects will be recruited from the outpatient clinic in Pediatric Dentistry and Dental Public health Department. Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University, Egypt. Patients will be screened by the research investigator until the target population is achieved. The outcome data and results will be independently collected from each participant by the researcher, examined, organized and analyzed under the supervision of the assistant supervisor. Any missing data will be revised and handled with the best techniques according to the type of data missed. All data will be entered and stored on a secured personal computer in coded and password locked files. Backup of data on an external hard disc in order to prevent any data loss. Results will be statistically analyzed by using statistical package of social sciences (SPSS 26.0, IBM/SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL). There are two types of statistical methods Descriptive statistics and Analytical or inferential statistics. In this study, no data monitoring committee will be needed since it is a study with known minimal risks. The Main Supervisor will monitor this study. Auditing will be done by the main and co-supervisors to assure quality of the research methods, restorative technique and interventions.

02

Conditions studied

  • Dental Anxiety

Browse trials for

Keywords

  • virtual reality
03

In context

Anxiety Disorders

4,868 studies on the registry are indexed under Anxiety Disorders; 1,390 are open to participants now.

This study's planned enrollment of 42 is below the median of 80 across 4,174 interventional studies indexed under Anxiety Disorders.

Browse Anxiety Disorders studies →

Lead sponsor

Cairo University is the lead sponsor of 4,780 studies on the registry; 1,427 are open to participants now.

Of its 36 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 5 (14%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
5 Years to 7 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
Yes

Inclusion criteria

  • Children between 5-7 years old age.
  • Both genders.
  • First dental visit
  • Positive and definitely positive behavior according to Frankel behavior scale.
  • Two or more badly decayed primary maxillary first molars beyond repair and need to be extracted.
  • Systemically and mentally healthy.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • History of systemic or mental conditions.
  • Special health care needs who require pharmacological management prior to dental treatment.
  • Acute dental pain or trauma.
  • Extremely uncooperative children who require being treated under general anesthesia, negative and definitely negative according to Frankel behavior scale
05

Study design

Phase
Not applicable
Primary purpose
Supportive care
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
42 participants (estimated)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    Group I (virtual reality group)

    The virtual reality device is a 3D head-mounted display which provides a wide field of view and a high-resolution visual display, the system consists of head mounted glasses, a compatible smartphone and headphones. This technology creates a computer stimulated virtual environment.

    Behavioral: virtual reality device

  • Active comparator
    Group II (screen program group).

    the screens shows such as cartoons, animation movies or recorded video games are used for distraction during dental treatments. They could be seen on tablets, iPads or LCD screen.

    Behavioral: screen programs

Interventions

  • Behavioralvirtual reality device

    The virtual reality device is a 3D head-mounted display which provides a wide field of view and a high-resolution visual display, it has been used to manage cases of phobia and extreme fear through the use of exposure-based treatment programs. The virtual reality system consists of head mounted glasses, a compatible smartphone and headphones. This technology creates a computer stimulated virtual environment into which the child can be entirely immersed. It works to distract the brain from the painful procedure and reduce the perception of pain stimuli

  • Behavioralscreen programs

    the screens are used for distraction during dental treatments. they could be on tablets, iPads or televisions.

    Also known as: tablets, televisions

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. RMS Pictorial Scale: A scale to assess the change in dental anxiety through the dental procedure

    The scale consists of row of 5 photographs of a child showing 5 different faces ranging from happy to very unhappy. The child is asked to choose the face that looks like what they feel at the moment. The score is recorded by giving value of 1 to happy and value of 5 to very unhappy. The RMS-pictorial scale is chosen for simple and easy for the child to understand, has 2 sets of photographs for boys and for girls, which gives efficient evaluation of dental anxiety.

    Time frame: The dental anxiety is measured during same single visit. There is no follow up and no specific time duration for the visit. Pre-operative anxiety: before administration of local anesthesia and Post-operative anxiety: after dental extraction.

07

Study locations

1 of 1 sites recruiting
08

References and documents

Publications

  • Nunna M, Dasaraju RK, Kamatham R, Mallineni SK, Nuvvula S. Comparative evaluation of virtual reality distraction and counter-stimulation on dental anxiety and pain perception in children. J Dent Anesth Pain Med. 2019 Oct;19(5):277-288. doi: 10.17245/jdapm.2019.19.5.277. Epub 2019 Oct 30. PubMed 31723668 ↗
  • Rao DG, Havale R, Nagaraj M, Karobari NM, Latha AM, Tharay N, Shrutha SP. Assessment of Efficacy of Virtual Reality Distraction in Reducing Pain Perception and Anxiety in Children Aged 6-10 Years: A Behavioral Interventional Study. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent. 2019 Nov-Dec;12(6):510-513. doi: 10.5005/jp-journals-10005-1694. PubMed 32440065 ↗
  • Tanja-Dijkstra K, Pahl S, White MP, Andrade J, Qian C, Bruce M, May J, Moles DR. Improving dental experiences by using virtual reality distraction: a simulation study. PLoS One. 2014 Mar 12;9(3):e91276. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0091276. eCollection 2014. PubMed 24621518 ↗
  • Asl Aminabadi N, Erfanparast L, Sohrabi A, Ghertasi Oskouei S, Naghili A. The Impact of Virtual Reality Distraction on Pain and Anxiety during Dental Treatment in 4-6 Year-Old Children: a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial. J Dent Res Dent Clin Dent Prospects. 2012 Fall;6(4):117-24. doi: 10.5681/joddd.2012.025. Epub 2012 Nov 12. PubMed 23277857 ↗
  • Nuvvula S, Alahari S, Kamatham R, Challa RR. Effect of audiovisual distraction with 3D video glasses on dental anxiety of children experiencing administration of local analgesia: a randomised clinical trial. Eur Arch Paediatr Dent. 2015 Feb;16(1):43-50. doi: 10.1007/s40368-014-0145-9. Epub 2014 Sep 26. PubMed 25256207 ↗
  • Niharika P, Reddy NV, Srujana P, Srikanth K, Daneswari V, Geetha KS. Effects of distraction using virtual reality technology on pain perception and anxiety levels in children during pulp therapy of primary molars. J Indian Soc Pedod Prev Dent. 2018 Oct-Dec;36(4):364-369. doi: 10.4103/JISPPD.JISPPD_1158_17. PubMed 30324926 ↗
09

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Nov 18, 2023, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
10

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT05157438
Lead sponsor
Cairo University
Responsible party
Amal Salem Yousry Mahrouse (Principal investigator, Cairo University) — Principal investigator
First posted
Dec 15, 2021
Start date
Oct 1, 2023
Primary completion
Jan 1, 2024 (estimated)
Completion
Mar 1, 2024 (estimated)
Last update
Nov 18, 2023

Study contacts

Amal S Abdelatty
Contact
amal.mahrouse@dentistry.cu.edu.eg
+201092623145
Amal S Abdelatty, Masters
principal investigator · Cairo University
Cairo University
study chair · 11 El-Saraya St. - Manial - Cairo

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Interested in this study?

Eligibility is decided by the study team. Share this record with your doctor or contact the team directly.

Contact study team

Follow this study

Get an email when the registry record changes — status, dates, results — or when someone posts here.

Sign in to follow

Discussion

Questions and observations about this study, from anyone following it. Not medical advice, and not a channel to the study team — their contact details are on the registry record.

Sign in to join the discussion. Reading takes no account; posting does. You choose a display name, and a pseudonym is the default.

Nothing here yet. If you are running this trial, taking part in it, or weighing whether to, this is the place to say so.

Start the discussion