Virtual Reality Relaxation to Decrease Dental Anxiety

Virtual Reality Relaxation to Decrease Dental Anxiety in Primary Dental Care

Status

Completed

Phases

Study type

Interventional

Source

ClinicalTrials.gov

Registry ID

NCT03993080

Enrollment

277

Registered

2019-06-20

Start date

2018-10-15

Completion date

2019-02-27

Last updated

2019-06-25

For informational purposes only — not medical advice. Sourced from public registries and may not reflect the latest updates. Terms

Conditions

Dental Anxiety

Keywords

dental anxiety, virtual reality

Brief summary

The aim is to apply short-term virtual reality relaxation to examine if it is effective in reducing pre-operative dental anxiety in primary health care using an RCT.

Detailed description

Randomized controlled single-center trial with two parallel arms: Virtual Reality Relaxation (VRR) and Treatment As Usual (TAU) in a public oral health care unit. VRR group receiving a 1-3.5 minute 360° video immersing them in peaceful virtual landscape with audio features and sound supporting the relaxing experience. TAU groups remaining seated for 3 minutes in similar setting.

Interventions

DEVICEVirtual reality relaxation

1-3.5 minute 360° videos

Study design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

QUADRUPLE (Subject, Caregiver, Investigator, Outcomes Assessor)

Intervention model description

Randomized controlled single-center trial with two parallel arms

Eligibility

Sex/Gender

ALL

Age

18 Years to 120 Years

Healthy volunteers

Yes

Inclusion criteria

* attending for dental treatment * consenting * able to complete Finnish questionnaire without assistance * age 18 years or older

Exclusion criteria

* those not meeting inclusion criteria

Design outcomes

Primary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Dental anxiety	immediately after intervention	post-test measured with Modified Dental Anxiety Scale, The measure has five questions, each with five reply alternatives from not anxious to extremely anxious (on a scale 1-5), MDAS sums up to the total scale (range 5-25) which is used as primary outcome. Higher scores indicate higher dental anxiety.

Secondary

Measure	Time frame	Description
Anticipatory dental anxiety and treatment related dental anxiety	immediately after intervention	The secondary outcome variables are post-test scores for the two sub-scales of the MDAS referred to as 'anticipatory' (MDAS items 1 and 2) and 'treatment' dental anxiety (MDAS items 3, 4 and 5). Scales for sum up as anticipatory anxiety (Items 1 and 2: range 2-10) and treatment anxiety (Items 3-5, range 3-15). Higher scores indicate higher dental anxiety

Countries

Finland

Outcome results

None listed

Source: ClinicalTrials.gov · Data processed: Feb 19, 2026