Influence of pretreatment exposure to pediatric dental care using the "Tiny dentist" game on 4-7 years old children's pain and anxiety: a parallel randomised clinical trial.

There have been no experiments on interactive modelling through computer games, although there have been a few on modelling a pre-exposure method for managing anxiety among preschoolers. The impact of partaking in a dental simulation game prior to the dental treatment on pain and anxiety in kids aged 4 to7 years during their first appointment was studied. A total of 156 kids who required unilateral pulp therapy and preformed crowns on their mandibular primary molars were enrolled in this double-blind, randomized clinical trial. They were then randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The intervention group engaged in the game three times/day for 07 days prior to the anticipated appointment. The Wong-Baker Faces Rating Scale (WBFRS) was used to record their pre- and post-operative pain experienced during the dental procedure. Additionally, a finger pulse oximeter was used to record heart rate (HR) at each of the six treatment phases: baseline (the first session, two weeks prior to treatment) and stages 2-6. Playing video games considerably lowered the heart rate. Playing and the treatment period interacted in a major way. On comparing the groups at every time point, the intervention group displayed lower HR during injection, tooth preparation with an air-rotor and biomechanical preparation with endodontic rotary files.The results suggest that engaging in specific dental simulation games prior to the 1st dentist visit could help preschoolers feel less anxious during routine dental operations.

Cytotoxicity and Bioactivity of Mineral Trioxide Aggregate and Bioactive Endodontic Type Cements: A Systematic Review.

BACKGROUND: Knowledge of the cytotoxicity and bioactivity of endodontic materials may assist in understanding their ability to promote dental pulp stem cell activity and pulp healing in primary teeth. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This systematic review was carried out by searching the electronic databases such as PubMed, Google Scholar, and Cochrane reviews for the articles published between January 2000 and December 2018 using the appropriate MeSH keywords. An independent investigator evaluated the abstracts and titles for possible inclusion, as per the stipulated inclusion and exclusion criteria. The topics considered for extracting data from each study were: cell lineage, cytotoxicity assay used, and type of material tested. RESULTS: Seven eligible studies were selected for assessing the quality of evidence on the bioactivity of bioactive endodontic cements (BECs) (1 human cell line, 2 animal cell lines, and 4 in vitro, animal, and human studies) and 13 studies were selected for reviewing the quality of evidence on cytotoxicity (7 human cell lines, 4 animal cell lines, and 2 animal model studies). Very limited studies had been conducted on the bioactivity of materials other than mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA). With regards to cytotoxicity, the studies were diverse and most of the studies were based on MTT assay. Mineral trioxide aggregate is the most frequently used as well as studied root-end filling cement, and the literature evidence corroborated its reduced cytotoxicity and enhanced bioavailability. CONCLUSION: There was a lack of sufficient evidence to arrive at a consensus on the ideal material with minimal cytotoxicity and optimal bioactivity. More focused human/cell line-based studies are needed on the available root filling materials. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: The present systematic review provides an update on the available literature evidence on the cytotoxicity and bioactivity of various BECs including MTAs and their influence on the different cells with respect to their composition and strength. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Maru V, Dixit U, Patil RSB, et al. Cytotoxicity and Bioactivity of Mineral Trioxide Aggregate and Bioactive Endodontic Type Cements: A Systematic Review. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2021;14(1):30-39.