A Comparative Evaluation of Heart Rate and Blood Pressure on Two Different Behaviour Management Techniques in Children

Background: Dental practitioners have numerous methods to control anxiety and pain in children, and distracting the child appears to be the most common technique used for behavior management during dental procedures. Aim: To compare between two behaviour management techniques: audiovisual technique and parental presence based on heart rate and blood pressure among boys and girls of age group 5 to 10 years. Materials and Methods: Sixty children, thirty boys and thirty girls, aged between 5 to 10 years were selected and divided into three groups - Control group, Audio visual group, Parental presence group. Minor restorative procedures were done by the same operator for every child. The blood pressure of children was recorded before and after the procedure. Heart rate was recorded before, during and after the procedure using pulse oximeter. Chi Square Test was used to compare the Blood pressure among study participants. Repeated measures of ANOVA test followed by Bonferroni's Post hoc Analysis was done to compare the mean Heart Rate between different time intervals in each study group. Results: Children in VR group showed lesser variation in BP and also a decrease in heart rate post treatment than the parental presence group. Conclusion: Use of audio visual technique is effective compared to parental presence in controlling the anxiety in children undergoing short dental treatments.