Hypnosis and Dental Anesthesia in Children:A Prospective Controlled Study

Abstract

The authors of this prospective study initially hypothesized that hypnosis would lower the anxiety and pain associated with dental anesthesia. Thirty children aged 5 to 12 were randomly assigned to 2 groups receiving hypnosis (H) or not (NH) at the time of anesthesia. Anxiety was assessed at inclusion in the study, initial consultation, installation in the dentist's chair, and at the time of anesthesia using the modified Yale preoperative anxiety scale (mYPAS). Following anesthesia, a visual analogue scale (VAS) and a modified objective pain score (mOPS) were used to assess the pain experienced. The median mYPAS and mOPS scores were significantly lower in the H group than in the NH group. Significantly more children in the H group had no or mild pain. This study suggests that hypnosis may be effective in reducing anxiety and pain in children receiving dental anesthesia.

A controlled trial on the effect of hypnosis on dental anxiety in tooth removal patients

“…It can be used as a stand-alone intervention or as an adjunct to treatment as usual (e.g., anesthesia). The number of studies investigating hypnosis as an adjunct intervention is very limited, but preliminary evidence suggests that hypnosis reduces dental anxiety in patients undergoing dental treatments [7,13,[19][20][21]. It is possible to induce hypnosis live or by standardised suggestions (e.g.…”

Hypnoanalgesia in Dentistry: A Literature Review

“…The number of participants varied from a minimum of 14 to a maximum of 102 patients. One study was related to children (Huet et al, 2011), while the other fourteen references were focused on adult participants. All the studies assembled participants that were classified as being in good health, without mental disturbances.…”

“…All the studies assembled participants that were classified as being in good health, without mental disturbances. Depending on the studies, two type of comparison were established: (a) hypnosis versus no other preoperative treatments or coadjutant to other treatments (Barber & Mayer, 1977;Dyas, 2001;Eitner et al, 2010;Enqvist & Fisher, 1997;Ghoneim et al, 2000;Huet et al, 2011;Shrav & Tal, 1989;Wolf et al, 2016a), and (b) hypnosis versus other therapies including local anaesthesia (Abdeshahi et al, 2013;Attaran et al, 2012;Wolf et al, 2016b), conventional dental hypersensitivity treatments (Eitner et al, 2010), other types of hypnotic techniques (Facco et al, 2011;Gillett & Coe, 1984) or relaxation (Houle, McGrath, Moran & Garrett, 1988).…”

“…Four references used pre-recorded audiotape as the hypnotic induction technique for the study, while the rest of the references used a professional trained to perform hypnosis (Gillet & Coe, 1984;Enqvist & Fisher, 1997;Ghoneim et al, 2000;Mackey, 2010). Dental procedures performed varied depending on the studies: restorative treatments (Attaran et al, 2012;Eitner et al, 2010;Gillet & Coe, 1984;Huet et al, 2011), third molar surgical extraction (Abdeshahi et al, 2013;Dyas, 2001;Enqvist & Fisher, 1997;Ghoneim et al, 2000;Mackey, 2010), or dental pulp testing (Barber & Mayer, 1977;Facco et al, 2011;Houle, McGrath, Moran & Garrett, 1988;Sharav & Tal, 1989;Wolf et al, 2016a y b).…”

“…This review was focused on the effect of hypnosis on pain, thus the most frequent evaluation criterion present in the included references was pain. The evaluation of pain was founded on the use of a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) (Abdeshashi et al, 2013;Eitner et al, 2010;Enqvist & Fisher, 1997;Ghoneim et al, 2000;Houle, McGrath, Moran & Garrett, 1988;Huet et al, 2011;Mackey, 2010;Sharav & Tal, 1989;Wolf et al, 2016a y b), the amount of anaesthetic necessary during the procedure (Gillett & Coe, 1984;Mackey, 2010), the amount of postoperative analgesics consumption (Dyas, 2001;Enqvist & Fisher, 1997;Ghoneim et al, 2000;Mackey, 2010) and pain threshold evaluation (Barber & Mayer;1977;Facco et al, 2011;Houle, McGrath, Moran & Garrett, 1988;Sharav & Tal;1989;Wolf et al, 2016a y b). Physiological parameters (blood pressure and heart rate) were also obtained (Dyas, 2001;Ghoneim et al, 2000;Mackey, 2010).…”