Avaliação de ansiedade odontológica em crianças: aferição dos sinais vitais e uso do Venham Picture Test Modificado (VPT-M)

Abstract

Dental anxiety directly influences the success of the procedures performed and, if not controlled, can have several consequences on the child's systemic health. Due to this factor, many researchers seek methods for assessing children's dental anxiety, since, as a feeling, there is a subjectivity for each patient. The objective of this work is to show how children's behavior changes the result of the patient's vital signs, before and after dental care, and to compare objective measures, measurement of vital signs, and subjective measures, using the VPT-M. Sixteen children attended at the Integrated Children's Clinics of the Centro Universitário UNDB were selected, who did not have any significant changes in systemic health and aged 3 to 12 years, from September to November 2020. Data collection occurred in three moments, before the procedure, in the waiting room, information relevant to the patient was collected and the application of the VPT-M was performed. In the dental chair, before the procedure, the first measurement of vital signs was performed, specifically blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR) and the level of oxygen saturation in the blood (SpO2), while at the end of the visit, the second gauging. The results showed that in patients' systolic BP before (118.4 mmHg) and after care (112.0 mmHg), there was a significant change in values. In HR, comparing the two moments of data collection, a significant change was observed before (94.2 bpm), and after the procedure (83.56 bpm). In the SpO2 level and in the diastolic BP evaluation, it was not possible to observe a change in values, even before or after the service. As for the VPT-M, it was possible to observe that of the 16 participants, none was classified as having a high level of anxiety, there was a variation in the scores from 0 to 5, where the average of the results was 2. According to the result, it is possible to conclude that the use of two evaluation methods, an objective) and a subjective one, is effective in the evaluation of children's dental anxiety, since it was possible to observe changes in the objective results.