Patient-selected music listening and heartrate patterns during paediatric dental hygiene: an exploratory pilot study

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ABSTRACT

Aim

To explore heart-rate changes across predefined procedural phases in paediatric patients undergoing professional dental hygiene with passive patient-selected music listening compared with standard care, and to descriptively examine HR patterns in a small clinically indicated nitrous oxide/oxygen (N2O/O2) conscious sedation reference group.

Background

Dental procedures may elicit fear and anxiety in children, potentially affecting cooperation and the overall quality of care. Music lis-tening is a simple, low-cost, non-pharmacological intervention that can be easily integrated into preventive dental procedures. However, physiological measures such as heart rate (HR) are non-specific and should not be inter-preted as direct measures of dental anxiety, fear, or behavioral cooperation.

Material and methods

This single-center pilot study included 45 children aged 5–14 years undergoing scaling and polishing. Participants were allocated to Group A (standard care; n=19), Group B (passive patient-selected music listening via headphones; n=21), and Group C (clinically indicated N2O/O2 conscious sedation; n=5; non-randomised reference group). Groups A and B were assigned by simple randomization, whereas Group C was not randomised. HR was recorded by fingertip pulse oximetry throughout the appointment and summarised at three predefined procedural phases: before the procedure (T0), during scaling (T1), and at the end of the session (T2).

Results

Mean HR values (bpm) at T0, T1, and T2 were 98.0, 90.0, and 95.3 in Group A; 95.7, 84.5, and 80.1 in Group B; and 97.6, 79.2, and 73.4 in Group C, respectively. Compared with Group A, Group B showed a greater reduction in mean HR from baseline to the end of the session (−15.6 vs. −2.7 bpm). The clinically indicated N2O/O2 reference group showed the lowest mean HR values during scaling and at the end of the session. These comparisons were descriptive only.

Conclusion

In this exploratory pilot sample, passive patient-selected music listening was associated with a different pattern of HR change across the dental hygiene session compared with standard care, with lower mean HR values observed during scaling and at the end of the session. Because HR is a non-specific physiological parameter and no validated psychological or behavioural measure of dental anxiety, fear, or cooperation was collected, these findings should be regarded as preliminary and hypothesis-generating and should not be interpreted as evidence of an anxiolytic effect. Larger controlled studies incorporating standardised procedures, subject-level analyses, and validated psycho-logical and behavioural outcomes are needed.

Statistics

Data were analysed descriptively. HR values were summarised as group means at the three predefined procedural phases, and changes across time points were reported as differences between group mean values. No formal inferential statistical testing was performed because of the exploratory pilot design and limited sample size.

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