Is hypnosis effective in dentistry?

Abstract: This study aims to evaluate the effect of hypnosis on pain, anxiety, and acceleration of wound healing due to oral soft tissue biopsy. Excisional biopsy was performed on 36 patients. They were randomly assigned into 2 groups, to undergo biopsy using local anesthesia in the control group and using hypnosis (without using local anesthesia) in hypnosis group. No drug was prescribed after biopsy in either group. Acceleration of wound healing, alterations of pain, and anxiety of the patients in both groups were evaluated. The area of the lesion was measured after surgery (T0) and after 7 days (T1), and then the percentage of healing index PHI, indicating the rate of wound healing within 7 days, was used. To assess the pain’s alterations, the VAS after surgery during the operation and one and 2 days after the operation was utilized. Patient anxiety was measured using the Beck’s questionnaires. In the data analysis, t-student, Mann-Whitney, Chi-square, regression, and SPSS-24 software were used.  By controlling the confounding variables, there are statistically significant differences between the mean PHI, VAS, and anxiety scores. The mean of PHI in the hypnosis group was increased by the standard method of 23.71%, which was statistically significant. P-value<0.001. Hypnosis can accelerate wound healing in the soft tissues of the oral cavity and reduce the anxiety of the patient during surgery, as well as pain relief and postoperative pain.