Evaluation of Augmented Reality on Dental Pain and Anxiety During Primary Molars' Extraction

Evaluation of Augmented Reality on Dental Pain and Anxiety During Primary Molars' Extraction: Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of using virtual reality glasses compared to augmented reality glasses as distraction methods to reduce the dental anxiety and pain in children during extraction of primary molars.

Study Overview

• Status: Not yet recruiting
• Conditions: Dental Anxiety
• Intervention / Treatment: Device: Augmented reality glasses; Device: VR glasses

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Estimated): 30
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

• Study Contact: Name: Sara H Rabie, BDS; Phone Number: +20 10 67200674; Email: sararabie96@hotmail.com

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• Medically free children without visual or auditory impairment (ASA I).
• Children aged 6-8 years.
• Children with Frankl behaviour rating score 3 or 4.
• Children requiring extraction in one of their primary molars.
• Parents who will accept to give their consent and participate in the study

Exclusion Criteria:

• Children require emergency dental treatment.
• Children with a history of epilepsy and anxiety disorder.
• Children with previous bad dental experience.
• Allergy to local anaesthetic drugs.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Supportive Care
• Allocation: Randomized
• Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
• Masking: Single

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Augmented Reality	Device: Augmented reality glasses; Augmented reality glasses will be introduced to the child and he will be allowed to choose his favourite cartoon movie from this list: Rapunzel, Stitch, Ratatouille, Frozen, Minions, Zootopia, and The lion king during the first dental visit to get familiar with the AR glasses. The augmented reality is an eye goggle that will be connected to the laptop through a wire, then after playing the cartoon that will be selected by the child on the laptop the child will enjoy watching the cartoon movie through the eye goggle.
Active Comparator: Virtual Reality	Device: VR glasses; Children allocated to this group will be managed by Virtual reality glasses, which will be introduced to the child and he will be allowed to choose his favourite cartoon from the same list during the first dental visit to get familiar with the VR glasses. The virtual reality is a head-mounted display, the child will be asked to select his favourite cartoon on a mobile, then the mobile will be inserted in that head-mounted display

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Heart rate (HR) assessment	Heart rate (HR) will be employed as an anxiety indicator, as stress or anxiety can increase it. It will be measured using a pulse oximeter. A brief demonstration using the pulse oximeter will be done, and the patient will be instructed to stay still and not to move his hands a lot in order to obtain accurate readings. The pulse oximeter will be placed on the patient's index finger.	Baseline to immediately after the procedure (within the same treatment visit).
Anxiety assessment using the Facial Image Scale (FIS)	The FIS comprises one item with a response set of five faces (ranging from a very sad to a very smiley face). Children will be asked to indicate which of the faces they feel most like at that moment, it is a 'state' measure of anxiety that provides an immediate reflection of how the child is feeling.	Baseline to immediately after the procedure (within the same treatment visit).
Anxiety assessment using Venham's clinical anxiety scale	The Venham's clinical anxiety rating scale will be used to assess the child's dental anxiety at baseline, during and after anesthesia injection and extraction procedure. The assessment will take place by the operator and the independent outcome assessor using the recorded video tapes. This objective measure scores the child's level of anxiety with a correlating behavior description It consists of 6 categories (range from 0 to 5) where 0= relaxed, 1=uneasy, 2= tense, 3= reluctant, 4= interference, 5= out of contact.	Baseline to immediately after the procedure (within the same treatment visit).
Pain assessment using Wong-Baker FACES pain rating scale	The Wong-Baker FACES Pain Rating Scale will be used to quantify the child's pain experience. This scale ranges from a neutral face, assigned a score of "0," indicating no pain, to a frowning face with a score of "10," representing the highest level of discomfort. The scale will be explained to the child, who will be asked to choose the face that represents how much pain he or she will feel during anesthesia injection and extraction from one of the graphic rating scales by pointing his finger at one of the six faces shown on the chart will be given to him.	Baseline to immediately after the procedure (within the same treatment visit).
Pain assessment using Face, legs, activity, cry, consolability (FLACC) scale	FLACC behavioral pain assessment scale will be used to assess the child's dental pain during the procedure. This objective measure scores the child's level of pain with a correlating behavior description. It consists of 5 categories (F) face, (L) leg, (A) activity, (C) cry, (C) consolability each is scored from 0 to 2, which results in a total score between zero and ten. The assessment will take place by the operator and the independent outcome assessor, the assessors will assign a score to each category based on the child's response during anesthesia injection and extraction by analysis of the recorded videotapes.	Baseline to immediately after the procedure (within the same treatment visit).

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Sara Hazem Mohamed Rabie

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Estimated): April 1, 2026
• Primary Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2026
• Study Completion (Estimated): July 1, 2026

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 9, 2026
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 9, 2026
• First Posted (Actual): March 12, 2026

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): March 12, 2026
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 9, 2026
• Last Verified: March 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 1189-11/2025

Drug and device information, study documents

• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product: No
• Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product: No