Scoping through the stress with a view.

Introduction: New and potentially threatening situations often cause anxiety in children. Distraction, which involves diverting children's attention away from painful stimuli during invasive dental procedures, helps to alleviate the child's fear and anxiety and appears to be safe and inexpensive technique. Aim: Comparative evaluation of anxiety levels in children while administering local anesthesia with two different distraction techniques - An in vivo study. Materials and Methods: Randomized controlled clinical trial. Sample size: 30 (15 in each group). Study groups: Group A - kaleidoscope and Group B - stress ball distraction. Following the standard protocol, inferior alveolar nerve block was given. In Group A, children were asked to see a kaleidoscope for various colors and patterns throughout the inferior alveolar nerve block (IANB) procedure. In Group B, children were instructed to keep pressing the stress ball throughout the IANB procedure. Evaluation: Self-reported anxiety at the time of injection was assessed using the Venham picture test (VPT). Physiological levels of anxiety were measured by recording oxygen saturation and pulse rate with a pulse oximeter at baseline and during the injection. Results: Group A showed significantly lower mean VPT scores and lower mean pulse rates than Group B during the IANB procedure. Oxygen saturation levels remained nonsignificant between the two groups. Conclusion: The findings of the study showed that kaleidoscope was more effective as compared to stress ball in reducing dental anxiety during IANB administration in children [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]