Comparative Effects of Prize Distraction and Conversation Distraction Behavioral Control Methods on Dental Pain and Anxiety of 3-7-Year-Old Children: A Clinical Trial

Management of pediatric patients’ dental pain and anxiety is a challenge. This study aimed to compare the effects of prize distraction (PD) and conversation distraction (CD) on dental pain and anxiety of 3-7-year-old children. This cross-over split-mouth randomized clinical trial was conducted on 64 systemically healthy children between 3-7 years with bilateral primary maxillary first molars requiring pulpotomy. The patients were randomly assigned to two groups. In the first group, PD was used in the first session for treatment of one randomly selected quadrant while CD was used in the second session for treatment of the other quadrant. This order was reverse in the second group. The pain and anxiety of patients were evaluated at the onset of each treatment session and during anesthetic injection by measuring their pulse rate (PR) as a physiological parameter, and using the Sound-Eyes-Motor (SEM) and the Wong-Baker Faces Pain Rating (WBFPR) scale. Data were analyzed by STATA 16 (alpha=0.05). Local anesthetic injection significantly increased the PR in both groups (P<0.05); however, this increase was significantly smaller in the PD group (P<0.001). Also, the WBFPR scale (P<0.002) and SEM (P<0.001) scores were significantly lower in the PD group than CD. Local anesthetic injection significantly increased dental anxiety of children in both groups despite the distraction methods. PD was significantly more effective than CD for reduction of dental pain and anxiety in 3-7-year-old children.