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Impact of Therapy Dogs on Child Anxiety and Behavior During Local Anesthesia for Dental Procedures

NCT06725134 · Status: RECRUITING · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 25

Last updated 2025-12-03

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Therapy dogs in dental offices might help anxious children during dental care. Therapy dogs might help children during injection of local anesthetic, when we inject numbing medication before working on the teeth. The goal of this study is to learn if having a therapy dog with a child during the injection of numbing medication helps children to be more comfortable at the dentist's office. This study is of children who need dental care using local anesthesia. Study participant's behavioral reactions and heart rate during injection of local anesthetic with and without having a therapy dog present will be recorded and children and their guardians will be asked a few short questions about the injection and therapy dog after injection.

Conditions

  • Situational Anxiety
  • Behavior

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Therapy dog presence

A trained therapy dog will be present during the child's dental appointment. The dog will be in the operatory as the child enters the room and will lie on the child during injection of local anesthesia.

BEHAVIORAL

Standard-of-care basic behavior guidance

Basic behavior guidance as defined by the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry includes strategies to help children cope through potentially stressful dental procedures. These strategies include tell-show-do, positive reinforcement, parental presence, and nitrous oxide/oxygen analgesia, among others.

Sponsors & Collaborators

Principal Investigators

  • James R. Boynton, DDS, MS · University of Michigan

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age
4 Years
Max Age
12 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2024-11-01
Primary Completion
2026-11-30
Completion
2027-07-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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Entities

Companies

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT06725134 on ClinicalTrials.gov