EFFECT OF VARIOUS DISTRACTION TECHNIQUES ON PAIN AND ANXIETY OF PEDIATRIC DENTAL PATIENTS: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Among the many behavior management techniques suggested to reduce dental pain and anxiety during treatment in children, distraction appears to be a safe and cost-effective strategy that has been proven to deliver a practical and comfortable experience throughout a quick, unpleasant dental procedure. Distraction treatment is thought to work because "the feeling of pain has a large psychological component." Using the PubMed, Medline, and ScienceDirect databases, a thorough evaluation of the literature spanning 2010 to 2022 was conducted. "Distraction tactics," "pain," "pediatric patients," and "anxiety" were the keywords chosen. Additionally, the selection procedure for the articles that were searched was described using the PRISMA flowchart. To rate the caliber of the included studies, the Cochrane risk of bias assessment approach was employed. The majority of the nine studies that were included in this systematic review, which supported the use of distraction tactics among pediatric patients, showed that they were all in favor of using them. Pediatric patients' anxiety levels can be effectively reduced during dental treatment by using distraction strategies like audiovisuals, virtual reality, and music therapy.