Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of vibration-assisted syringes versus conventional syringes on both pain and anxiety perception during dental local anesthetic injection in children.
Materials and Methods: Forty-six children ranging in age from 4 to 6 years were randomly allocated to two equal groups. In group (I), children received intraoral injection using vibration-assisted syringes while in group (II), children received intraoral injection using conventional syringes. Children reaction for pain due to needle prick and local anesthetic injection was recorded through visual analogue scale, while the anxiety experienced was evaluated using visual facial anxiety scale.
Results: Regarding pain score, group II (7.00±2.07) had higher score value than group I (6.52±2.2), but with no statistically significant difference (p=0.484).Although anxiety score in group II (3.78±1.31) had a higher value than in group I (3.57±1.41) , yet the difference was not statistically significant (p=0.551).No significant associations were observed between either gender and pain or gender and anxiety in both groups(p>0.05).A weak negative correlation was found between pain and age which was statistically significant in group II (rs=-0.480, p=0.019).

Conclusions: The use of a vibration-assisted syringe didn't provide a significant reduction in dental pain perceived and anxiety expressed by children when compared with the conventional syringe. Further studies are needed to find alternatives to provide less painful local anesthetic injections in children.