Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of the mobile app versus the tell-show-do technique in reducing anxiety and pain during the administration of local anaesthesia in children.
Methods: Eighty children aged from four to six years old were randomly allocated into two groups, forty patients in each. Group A: children were managed using the mobile dental app (little lovely dentist). Group B: children were managed using Tell-Show-Do technique, then, both groups received local anaesthesia and the required treatment. During the second visit, both groups received the required treatment without behavior management. The outcomes measured for both groups during the first visit were: preoperative and post-operative anxiety recorded by pulse oximeter and the RMS pictorial scale. Post-operative pain was evaluated by the visual analog scale, and the attitude was recorded by Venham scale and Frankle scale in the first and second visits.
Results: The results of this study showed that mobile app group showed less anxiety scores, less pain scores, and more cooperative behavior compared to the tell-show-do group but the effect size was small.
Conclusion: the mobile app "little lovely dentist" can be used to reduce levels of dental anxiety, pain, and to acquire cooperative behaviour in pediatric dental patients.