ReviewChildren (Basel, Switzerland)2023
Managing Dental Phobia in Children with the Use of Virtual Reality: A Systematic Review of the Current Literature.
Review in Children (Basel, Switzerland), 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Augmented and virtual reality in dental and oral and maxillofacial surgery education: a systematic review with a taxonomy of training technologies.BMC medical education · 2026Pooled it
- Virtual Reality Is Safe and Can Reduce In-Hospital Anxiety and Pain: A Systematic Review With Meta-Analyses and Trial Sequence Analyses.European journal of pain (London, England) · 2025Pooled it
- The role of photobiomodulation in minimizing pain during dental injections in adults and children: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Lasers in medical science · 2025Pooled it
- Teledentistry Applied to Health and Education Outcomes: Evidence Gap Map.Journal of medical Internet research · 2024Pooled it
- Investigation of alveolar osteitis and the effectiveness of laser treatment: a unified Meta-analysis and review of the literature.BMC oral health · 2024Pooled it
- Effectiveness of virtual reality-based toothbrushing instruction on oral health outcomes: A randomized controlled trial.Clinical oral investigations · 2026Trial
- Comparative efficacy of virtual reality headset and auditory distraction for reducing anxiety and pain during inferior alveolar nerve block in 7-10-year-old children: a clinical trial.BMC pediatrics · 2025Trial
- Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Managing Preoperative Anxiety in the Context of Odontectomy: A Systematic Review.Dentistry journal · 2026Review
- Conceptualized Immersive Projection Environment (CIPE-NRTInternational journal of clinical pediatric dentistry · 2025Article
- Beyond failure: a case report on brain state changes during virtual reality-induced hypnosis in pediatric patient.BMC oral health · 2025Article
- Virtual Reality as a Non-Pharmacological Aid for Reducing Anxiety in Pediatric Dental Procedures.Children (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- The Protective Role Antioxidant of Vitamin C in the Prevention of oral Disease: A Scoping Review of Current Literature.European journal of dentistry · 2024Article
- Infectious Diseases-Approved Virtual Reality Goggles for Common Procedures in Pediatric Surgical Patients.Journal of clinical medicine · 2024Article
- Immersive Technologies for Depression Care: Scoping Review.JMIR mental health · 2024Article
- Elementary Teacher's Perception of Oral Health Education in a City of the Brazilian Amazon: A Cross-Sectional Study.International journal of dentistry · 2024Article
- Feasibility of Virtual Reality Immersion in Reducing Pain and Anxiety during External Fixator Care Procedures.Strategies in trauma and limb reconstructionArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt is common today to encounter anxiety in patients facing dental treatment. Virtual reality (VR) is presented as a high-performing and innovative procedure because it can distract patients undergoing dental procedures or prepare them for such treatments. In addition, this meta-analysis has gathered evidence on VR and its ability to reduce dental anxiety in pediatric patients undergoing different treatments.
methodsThe major Scopus, PubMed, EMBASE and Web of Science databases were searched for scientific articles published up to 2023. Studies in which VR was used for children and adults as a measure against anxiety during dental treatments were included. VR was defined as a three-dimensional place where patients experience a sense of immersion as they find themselves in attractive and interactive environments that detach them from reality. Anxiety and pain were examined and measured during dental treatments in which VR was used by comparing them with standard care situations.
resultsTwenty-five studies were identified, of which eleven met the inclusion criteria. The effect of VR was studied mainly in the pediatric population as a distractive method. Only two studies (not significant) on an adult population were considered.
conclusionsthis review shows that VR is an excellent distraction method that is effective in reducing anxiety before dental treatment; however, due to the few studies in this area, further research on VR as a tool to prepare patients for dental treatment is needed.
Indexed as
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What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.