Positive Psychological Deconditioning of Pediatric Patients With Dental Anxiety Through Artificial Intelligence

Summary

Pediatric patients who will be attending dental treatment at both the Orthodontics and Pediatric Dentistry Unit, Department of Clinical, Surgical, Diagnostic, and Pediatric Sciences at the University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy and a private dental practice in Genoa, Italy, will be recruited for the study.

A cartoon version of a small molar will be drawn using the software Paint (version 22000.0, Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington State, U.S.). The drawing will be animated using an AI-based software (Sketch MetaDemolab, Meta AI Research, Astor Place, New York city, New York, U.S.). A text will be created in collaboration with OpenAI (version 3.5, Open AI, San Francisco, California, U.S.) to be integrated into the video, utilizing terminology deemed most suitable for a patient with dental anxiety. The text will be transformed from written to spoken dialogue using an AI-based software (Flexclip, version 5.6.0, PearlMountain, Hong Kong, China), and then incorporated into the video.

Children will undergo the first dental visit at the baseline (T0), in which the following indexes will be assessed: Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS), Face-Leg-Activity-Cry-Consolability Scale (FLACC), Simplified Oral Hygiene Index (OHI-S), Bleeding on Probing (BOP) and the International Caries Detection and Assessment System (ICDAS). They will be randomly divided into two group:

* in the Trial group, patients will watch the the video, and then the tell-show-do technique will be used to explain the dental procedures;
* in the Control group, only the "tell-show-do" technique will be used. Variables considered will include age, gender, and the presence/absence of a parent or another companion.

At the second visit (T1), scheduled approximately after two weeks, the variables will be re-evaluated and professional debridement will be performed with a piezoelectric instrument (Satelect Acteon Newton p5 xs,Acteon Group, Mèrignac, France and Sonicflex Kavo, KaVo Dental, Biberach an der Riss, Germany) and manual scaler/curettes (Courette 9/10, 11/12 and 13/14 Gracey and Scaler lm 23, Hu Friedy, Europe). Values will be registered again, for the third time, after the professional debridement.

Conditions

• Dental Anxiety
• Dental Phobia

Interventions

OTHER

AI-video

Video administration for the explanation of the dental procedures followed by verbal instructions.

OTHER

Verbal instructions

Only verbal instructions will be administered for the explanation of the dental procedures

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Pavia

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Andrea Scribante, DDS, MSc, PhD · Study Principal Investigator

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

SUPPORTIVE_CARE

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

5 Years

Max Age

10 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-03-04

Primary Completion

2024-07-01

Completion

2024-07-05

Countries

• Italy

Study Locations