Improving Adolescent-dentist Interaction Through Digital Technology

University of Pernambuco

Status: Completed

Conditions: Dental Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: "FALE" Application

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT03907514

022019

Details and patient eligibility

About

The aim of the present study is to assess the impact of a digital tool on the interaction between the dentist and the adolescent patient, concerning the level of dental anxiety and communication. To achieve this purpose, a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial will be performed using a short version of e-SAID (Survey of Anxiety and Information for Dentists) in Portuguese (FALE). That is, the intervention to be tested is an application usage, which will contain a questionnaire with questions supposedly made by the dentist, about feelings regarding the dental appointment and preferences for coping with dental treatment. Thus, the use of this digital tool aims to facilitate communication, favoring the adolescent-dentist relationship, and establishing empathy.

Full description

The target population consists of patients between 10 and 19 years old, attending the Adolescent Clinic in the Dental School of the Federal University of Pernambuco (UFPE), campus of Recife. The sample will consist of 184 adolescents, 92 in each group (intervention and control). Randomization will be stratified according to sex, age and presence or absence of dental anxiety. In the waiting room, before the dental appointment, the adolescents in the intervention group (IG) will use the FALE application to answer the questionnaire and assess the level of anxiety. Those in the control group (CG) will only record their level of anxiety. The undergraduates responsible for attending the IG participants will receive, prior to dental care, a report of the answers given by the adolescents through the application. During the dental consultation, a psychologist, who will be observing the care, will evaluate the adolescents behavior, considering cooperation. After the appointment, the adolescent will evaluate how much he/she felt benefited by the use of the app; how he evaluates the communication between him/her and the dentist; if he/she thinks that the app contributed with this communication; his/her satisfaction with dental treatment; and his/her satisfaction with the undergraduate attendance. The undergraduate will also evaluate his/her level of satisfaction with the application's use; how he/she evaluates the communication between him/her and the adolescent patient; how much the application has helped with this communication; and the degree of patient's cooperation during the dental consultation. Descriptive and inferential statistical analysis will be performed using appropriate tests through the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software version 21 and significance level of 5%.

Enrollment: 184 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 10 to 19 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Brazilian adolescents literate in Portuguese
• Brazilian adolescents able to use smartphone

Exclusion criteria

• Adolescents with intellectual, sensory or physical disabilities
• Adolescents not capable to read and write/type

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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184 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention Group (IG)

Experimental group

Description:

The adolescents in this group will use the "FALE" application through a smartphone in the waiting room before the dental appointment. When starting to answer the application, the adolescent will report his/her level of dental anxiety through the question, "How do you feel about coming to see your dentist today?", and record his/her answer on a seven-point face scale. Then the participant will continue to answer the 12 other questions, and finally registers his/her anxiety level once more through the same question.

Treatment:

Behavioral: "FALE" Application

Control Group (CG)

No Intervention group

Description:

Similarly to IG, the adolescents in this group will use the "FALE" application through a smartphone, but only to record their level of anxiety by answering the question "How do you feel about coming to see your dentist today?" using a seven-point face scale. Instead of continuing to answer the other questions, the application will guide him to wait for the one-minute interval (expected time to answer the questionnaire) and, once more, ask the same question regarding his/her feeling about the experience with the dentist.