Methods: We selected 24 healthy children (12 girls and 12 boys; average age, 9.8 years) and their mothers (average age, 42.6 years). Electrocardiograms of subjects were recorded during video stimulation with scenes of dental drilling (D1), vacuum suction (D2), and an ordinary landscape (N). Autonomic nerve activity was analyzed by power spectrum analysis of heart rate variability at low (LF: 0.04–0.15 Hz) and high (HF: 0.15–0.4 Hz) frequencies. LF/HF and heart rate (HR) values were used as indices of autonomic nerve activity. All subjects rated their response (i.e., valence, arousal, disgust, fear, and pain) to the video stimulation on a visual analog scale. Repeated-measures analysis of variance was performed to assess differences between the results for groups (children vs. mothers) and the type of video stimulation (D1 vs. D2 vs. N).
Results: A significant main effect of group was observed in HR changes (F=6.482, P=0.018) and in ratings of valence (F=6.234, P=0.020). The results for the main effect of video stimulation were significant for changes in LF/HF (F=8.763, P=0.010) and ratings of valence, disgust, fear, and pain (P<0.001 for all measures). The interaction effect (group × video stimulation) yielded significant results for ratings of arousal (F=8.434, P=0.001), showing that mothers exhibited higher arousal ratings towards the D1 video compared to children.
Conclusions: Autonomic responses and subjective ratings to virtual dental procedure could differ in some aspects between children and their mothers. Stimulation using dental videos may be useful to assess emotional stress and subjective perspectives.