NCT06912854

Sensory Adapted Dental Environments to Enhance Oral Care for Children With and Without Dental Fear and Anxiety

• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 312 (estimated)
• Sponsor: University of Southern California · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 6 Years – 12 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study is a randomized clinical trial investigating the effectiveness of a Sensory Adapted Dental Environment (SADE) alone and together with a video-based modeling (VBM) component (VBM-SADE), compared to a regular dental environment (RDE) and/or VBM alone, to reduce anxiety, distress behavior, pain, and sensory discomfort during a dental cleaning in children with and without dental fear and anxiety.

Conditions

• Dental Fear and Anxiety

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
OTHER	Sensory Adapted Dental Environment	The SADE condition consists of physical adaptations (visual, auditory, tactile modifications) to the dental environment meant to create a less anxiety-provoking sensory experience. Direct overhead fluorescent lighting and the regular dental overhead lamp will be turned off and darkening curtains will cover the windows. Adapted lighting will include slow moving visual color effects (Snoezelen) shining on the ceiling in the child's visual field. The dentist will wear a surgical dental headlamp directed into the patient's mouth, reducing bright lights shining in the child's eyes. Auditory stimuli will be calming rhythmic music (Dan Gibson's Exploring Nature) projected via portable speakers. The tactile deep pressure stimulus will be a commercially available weighted blanket (10-15% of the child's weight) placed on the child to provide deep "hugging" pressure, which produces a calming effect.
OTHER	Video-based Modeling	Participants will watch an approximately 5-minute video depicting a dental cleaning being performed on a sex and age-matched cooperative child, designed to expose the participant to the activities of the dental cleaning and thereby create a less anxiety-provoking dental experience.

Timeline

• Start date: 2025-05-09
• Primary completion: 2029-03-01
• Completion: 2029-03-01
• First posted: 2025-04-06
• Last updated: 2025-10-02

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States