therapy in the management of anxious pediatric patients during dental extraction.

Study design: The present study was conducted on two age groups i.e. 6–9 and 10–12 years comprising of 80 children with 40 in each age group

who required extraction of at–least one mandibular primary molar under local anesthesia. The children of both the age groups were randomly

divided into two sub–groups that is–audiovisual distraction group and cognitive behavioural therapy group with 20 children in each sub–group. The

physiological assessment of anxiety was done by recording heart rate using fingertip pulse oximeter at the start of extraction, three minutes after

giving local anesthesia and at the completion of extraction. The psychological assessment was done by recording base line anxiety prior to the

treatment and post treatment anxiety at the completion of extraction using Venham‘s anxiety scale.

Results: Independent t test at 0.05% level of significance revealed a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of pulse rate (p<0.01) and

clinical anxiety (P=0.034 and 0.039) between the video–eyeglass distraction and cognitive behavioral therapy in both the age groups.

Conclusion: Video–eyeglass distraction was found to be more effective in managing anxious children during dental extraction in comparison to

cognitive behavioural therapy.