Introduction: The expectation of undergoing endodontic treatment can cause anxiety in patients. Anxiety is described as a transient emotional state closely related to pain, fear, and imbalance of the organism. The clinician commonly must use some type of tool to alleviate the patient's preoperative anxiety before treatment can be applied. The aim of this study was to evaluate the influence of an audiovisual resource on the preoperative anxiety of adult patients undergoing endodontic treatment.
Methods: One hundred sixty endodontic patients were randomly divided into experimental and control groups (n = 80) and then assessed at 2 preoperative time points separated by a 10-minute interval. After the first assessment, the patients in the experimental group watched a video of their own choice obtained from the Internet to provide them with a relaxing experience. In both groups and at both time points, the assessments consisted of collecting the patients' vital signs (diastolic blood pressure, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate) and data regarding their subjective perception of anxiety using a visual analog scale.
Results: There were no significant differences between the groups regarding the vital sign variation observed between the 2 assessment time points. However, the variation in the scores obtained on the visual analog scale was significantly greater in the experimental group (P < .05), indicating a greater reduction in the level of preoperative anxiety in this group.
Conclusions: The preoperative use of an audiovisual resource was associated with a decrease in the perception of anxiety by patients undergoing endodontic treatment.
Keywords: Audiovisual aids; anxiety; dental anxiety; endodontics; preoperative period.
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