Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Reducing Fear and Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Third Molar Extraction under Local Anesthesia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Natalie Sui Miu Wong, Andy Wai Kan Yeung, Kar Yan Li, Colman Patrick McGrath and Yiu Yan Leung ()
Additional contact information
Natalie Sui Miu Wong: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Andy Wai Kan Yeung: Applied Oral Sciences & Community Dental Care, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Kar Yan Li: Clinical Research Centre, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Colman Patrick McGrath: Applied Oral Sciences & Community Dental Care, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Yiu Yan Leung: Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 18, 1-13

Abstract: This report investigated the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for reducing dental fear and anxiety in patients undergoing third molar extraction under local anesthesia. In November 2020, multiple electronic databases (Cochrane, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, PubMed, and Web of Science) were searched for articles published in English. Inclusion criteria were randomized-controlled trials reporting the effectiveness of any non-pharmacological interventions in reducing fear or anxiety levels in patients with third molar extraction. A total of 3015 studies by electronic search and 2 studies by hand search were identified. After screening, 21 studies were eligible for systematic review. Seven studies were included in the meta-analysis. Study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment of the included studies were performed by two independent investigators. The anxiety levels after intervention in each study were pooled and meta-analyzed by the random-effect model. A significant reduction in anxiety level was observed in non-pharmacological intervention groups (SMD = −0.32; 95% CI −0.57 to −0.07; p = 0.01). Subgroup analyses showed that a significant anxiety reduction by non-pharmacological interventions could be demonstrated by pooled data from studies using psychometric assessments, but not from studies using physiological assessments. Non-pharmacological interventions appear to reduce fear and anxiety levels in patients undergoing third molar extraction under local anesthesia.

Keywords: non-pharmacological intervention; dental fear; dental anxiety; third molar; extraction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11162/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/18/11162/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:18:p:11162-:d:907754

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().