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The use of immersive technology as a tool to ease anxiety during treatment at an orthodontist.

Delbaere, M. (2015) The use of immersive technology as a tool to ease anxiety during treatment at an orthodontist.

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Abstract:Visiting the dentist can potentially generate an array of negative emotions. It is therefore important for patients to feel more pleasant and in control, and to ease patients’ negative emotions such as feelings of pain, stress and anxiety while receiving treatment at the orthodontist. Distraction techniques can influence people’s emotions and mood. This study was executed to investigate whether music distraction or audiovisual distraction can aid to improve patients’ perceived control, anxiety, pain, and stress levels, by creating a less arousing and more pleasurable environment. The field experiment (n= 105) was conducted in a German dental clinic. The patients’ anxiety, stress, pain, control, pleasure, and arousal levels were measured in three conditions: with audiovisual distraction, with music distraction, without music or audiovisual distraction. The results showed that both distraction techniques used had no significant change on patients’ perceived control, anxiety, pain, stress, pleasure and arousal levels. The results indicate that music and audiovisual distractions are not effective in easing patients’ pain, stress, anxiety and arousal levels, and do not increase patients perceived control, and pleasure. However, patients within this study did generally indicated a low level of pain, stress and anxiety, as well as a high level of pleasure and feeling of being in control.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/68612
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