Eye Movement Distraction: A New Distraction Technique for Management of Dental Anxiety during Intraoral Local Anesthesia Administration in Children

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the efficacy of eye movement distraction (EMD) in reducing anxiety during intraoral local anesthetic administration in needle-phobic children. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 228 children aged 8–13 years were divided into two groups: group I (EMD) and group II (control), and subjective feelings of each child were recorded with a faces pain scale-revised (FPS-R) score. Both the groups (I and II) were compared using the Chi-square test. RESULTS: Children in the EMD group showed low FPS-R scores, which is statistically significant when compared to the control group (p < 0.0001). CONCLUSION: Eye movement distraction can be used as an effective distraction modality to reduce anxiety during local anesthesia administration in needle-phobic children. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Tirupathi S, Krishna N, Rajasekhar S, et al. Eye Movement Distraction: A New Distraction Technique for Management of Dental Anxiety during Intraoral Local Anesthesia Administration in Children. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2019;12(6):507–509.