Chromotherapy: a useful tool for managing anxiety in children

Abstract

Background: Dental anxiety is a type of fear developed due to threatening stimuli. Assessing the child's level of dental anxiety is very important to successfully carry out many treatment procedures in dentistry. Needles in general can cause dental anxiety. Chromotherapy is an ancient alternative medicine practice that uses the energy of the visible spectrum of electromagnetic radiation (i.e., coloured light) to induce changes in the human body. The objective of this study was to clinically evaluate and compare the effect of chromotherapy on the level of anxiety in patients treated with infiltration under local anaesthesia. Methods: This is a randomized control trial where anxiety was assessed using heart rate and animated emoji scale (AES) in children aged 4-14 years requiring infiltration injection of local anaesthesia. Patients were divided into 4 groups: group-1 blue, group-2 pink and group-3 yellow, group 4-control. Evaluation of all parameters was carried out at three levels, i.e., pre-operative, post-chromotherapy session and infiltration after local anaesthesia. Results: This study demonstrated that patients subjected to blue, pink and yellow colour therapy had a statistically significant reduction in anxiety compared to the control group after chromotherapy. Conclusions: Chromotherapy plays an important role in managing dental anxiety in children and can be effectively incorporated into routine practice.