Acceptability of the Wand for young dental patients
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Assessing the acceptability of the Wand anaesthetic system for the paediatric dental patients
IRAS ID
227141
Contact name
Paul Ashley
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University College London
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
Z6364106/2018/02/34, Data protection registration number
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
Dental anxiety is common in different age groups, especially children and adolescents (Locker et al 1999, 2001). Its implications are significant for children and their parents, oral health care providers and health care systems and it is a strong predictor of uncooperativeness and behavioural problems at the dental clinic. This is indeed a key factor for general dental practitioners to refer patients to secondary care (Harris et al 2008) where dental treatment under conscious sedation or general anaesthesia is the most likelihood for anxious patients(Milgrom et al 2010 and Malamed 2003). These procedures are time and money consuming and have emotional implications for patients, parents as well as care providers (Balmer et al 2004).
Needle pain is one of the main reasons for people's dental anxiety and fear from going to the dentist. The Wand is a computer-controlled local anaesthesia system was introduced as one of the ways to reduce pain caused by oral anaesthetic injections. It has been widely used especially with children since 1997.
There is an increasing importance of seeking children and young people's opinions and involving them in research related to this age group in the field of oral health. It enhances the quality and validity of research findings for being emerged from the targeted population. Qualitative research methods are excellent ways in identifying peoples’ feelings, awareness and preferences as they can provide unique and detailed reports (Stewar K. et al 2008). However, the field of paediatric dentistry lacks such kind of research, particularly interviews (Watt R. 1992).
Following reviewing the literature, there was no evidence found for gaining children's views of their experiences of having local dental anaesthesia with Wand system. Hence, it was decided to run a qualitative study through in-depth interviews with young dental patients to assess their acceptability to this device.REC name
North East - Newcastle & North Tyneside 2 Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
18/NE/0117
Date of REC Opinion
20 May 2018
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion