Dental Anxiety Assessment through the Drawings of Children and Influence of Art Therapy.

Background: Assessment of dental anxiety in children is difficult because of their immature cognitive and emotional development. Drawings are well well-established emotion assessment tool. These can be used as nonverbal methods of communication for expressing the children's anxiety and emotions. Art therapy utilizes creative therapy interventions to deal with children suffering from emotional problems.

Aims and objectives: The aim of the study is (1) To assess the drawings of children for the presence of dental anxiety. (2) To study the effectiveness of art therapy on dental anxiety in children.

Materials and methods: One hundred and twenty children within the age group of 6-12 years were part of this study. The pretest assessment of dental anxiety was done using Frankl and Five facial anxiety scales. All the participants received local anesthesia during their first treatment session. At the end of the treatment session, all the participants were asked to draw a picture of their experience. The drawn figures were assessed by a psychologist. The children were allotted randomly into the study group (n = 60) and control group (n = 60). Art therapy was given to 60 children in the study group for three consecutive appointments. The posttest assessment of dental anxiety was done using Frankl and Five facial anxiety scales after completion of the entire dental treatment.

Results: The pretest scores revealed very high level of dental anxiety in 33 (55%) children in study group and 34 (56.67%) children in control group. The posttest scores of study group, who received the art therapy, revealed that 24 (40%) children had little anxiety and 32 (53.33%) children had some anxiety. Whereas in the control group, the posttest scores showed 20 (33.33%) children had high anxiety and 39 (65%) children had very high anxiety scores. There was a significant correlation between the objective score of dental anxiety and the subjective scores of CD: H.

Conclusion: Drawings can be used as an assessment tool for the detection of dental anxiety and art therapy effectively reduces the anxiety in pediatric patients undergoing dental treatment.