Assessment of children's emotions before, during, and after the dental treatment procedure: An emoji-based study

Abstract

Background: Emojis are used to communicate emotional content as conversational indicators. Emojis of human faces are unrivaled in communication since they can discern between several basic emotions with great precision while also being universal. Aim: Assessment of children's emotions before, during, and after the dental treatment procedure: An emoji-based study. Materials and Methods: A total of 85 children, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years, were separated into four groups. Group 1 required local anesthetic for restoration, while Group 2 required extraction. Pulp treatment was in Group 3 and oral prophylaxis was in Group 4. All groups used an animated emoji scale (AES) to quantify anxiety before, during, and after the dental treatment procedure. Results: There was a statistically significant difference when the mean scores of the four treatment groups were compared before, during, and after the procedure. When Group 2 was compared to Groups 1, 3, and 4 there was a statistically significant difference in the anxiety of the research participant before, during, and after the procedures (P = 0.01). Groups 2, 3, and 4 were statistically significant after the treatment procedure (P = 0.01). Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that the AES can be a useful tool in tracking a patient's emotions during the dental treatment procedure to initiate appropriate behavior management.

Keywords

• animated emoji scale
• dental anxiety
• pediatric dentistry