Does Music during a Dental Treatment Make a Difference?

Dental treatment may elicit many different emotions, which often result in anxiety. Is it possible to reliese the stress connected with a visit at a dental office by music? Objectives: The purpose of the study was to asses whether the music influences dental patients’ tension and treatability. Methods: 200 adult patients were divided into 2 equal groups (one was listening to classical music during the treatment while the second one wasn’t). Everyone of them has completed an anonymous questionnaire before the treatment which contained questions based on Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale(CDAS) and another one containing questions based on the dentist rating of patients adjusment to treatment(DR) and the patient rating of tension(PR) just after the treatment was finished. Results: The mean result in the group of patients treated without music in PR was 2,7±1,2 and in DR 2,5±0,9 in comparison to 1,9±0,6 in PR and in DR in the second group.. Low level of tension according to PR was shown by 47% patients and medium by 44% in the first group while in the second 79% of patients showed low level and 21% medium. In the first group the level of tension among patients with high level of anxiety was 3,4±1,1 in PR while in the second one 2,5±0,6. The lower level of tension in the second group was observed also in all kinds of treatment (from 1,7 to 2,1 in PR), in all age groups (2±0,7), among women (2±0,7) as well as among men (1,9±0,7). Conclusions: Patients who were listening to music during the dental treatment showed lower level of tension and better adjusment in all kinds of treatments. In the same group patients with medium and high level of anxiety showed low level of tension. Age and sex didn’t matter in reliesing the tension by music.