NCT04708028

Animal Assisted Therapy in Dentistry

Animal Assisted Therapy's Effects on Dental Patients

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 40 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 7 Years – 17 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

A cross-sectional prospective study measuring physiologic biometrics and perceptions of stress during a dental procedure with or without a therapy dog present.

Detailed description

Patients will be consented, enrolled, and assigned to a control group (no dog) or to an experimental group (dog). The patient assigned to the experimental group will be exposed to the therapy animal prior to the dental appointment. Pre-dental procedure and post-dental procedure surveys will be given to all the subjects asking the same questions. Biometric data will be collected by measuring heart rates of the patient/subject during the dental appointment with a Shimmer or Polar device.

Conditions

• Anxiety

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Dog Therapy	The intervention is a therapy dog interaction (e.g. petting) for up to 2 minutes before their appointment and first interaction with the doctor. The subject can pet the dog for as long as they like up until the 2 minute mark.

Timeline

• Start date: 2021-07-26
• Primary completion: 2023-06-22
• Completion: 2024-03-04
• First posted: 2021-01-13
• Last updated: 2024-08-19
• Results posted: 2024-08-19

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States