Estudio de la ansiedad y el estrés en la realización de una biopsia oralefecto de intervención audiovisual

Abstract

INTRODUCTION At present, anxiety is an alteration caused by many factors which influence in one way or another on the oral health of the people who suffer from it. That is why the dentist, and his team must be prepared and instructed to distinguish the signs and symptoms related to anxiety that people who come to the dental office for dental treatment may present. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the effect of an audiovisual intervention on anxiety and stress in a dental procedure, taking an oral biopsy, in patients treated in the clinics of the Faculty of Dentistry of the University of San Carlos de Guatemala with different oral pathologies. MATERIALS AND METHODS For the case-control study, the sample consisted of 120 patients who underwent an oral biopsy. This was divided into two groups, the control group and the group that underwent the intervention. Both groups were of 60 participants each. Before taking the oral biopsy, all of them were asked to answer three questionnaires to assess anxiety and stress and an additional questionnaire to assess pain. The group that underwent the intervention prior to filling in the questionnaires were shown an explanatory video about why and how an oral biopsy is performed, its risks and benefits, and the complications it may have after it. The parameters that were measured were: Sex, age, educational level, blood pressure, pulse, blood oxygen saturation and the tests used to evaluate anxiety and stress were: MDAS, STAI and HAD and to evaluate pain it was: EVA. RESULTS The final sample of the study consisted of 120 patients (50% formed the control group and the other 50% the experimental group), of which 65.8% were women and 34.2% men, aged with an average of 40.5 years (SD = 15.3). In the MDAS test, no significant difference was observed between the final and baseline scores (p = 0.754), while in the patients in the experimental group the score at the end of the intervention was significantly lower than the baseline (p = 0.005). At the end of the intervention, the patients in the experimental group had a significantly lower MDAS compared to the patients in the control group (p = 0.041). In the control group, the STAI score did not show a significant difference between the final and baseline scores (p = 0.542), while in the patients in the experimental group the score at the end of the intervention was significantly lower than the baseline (p <0.001). At the end of the intervention, the patients in the experimental group had significantly lower state anxiety compared to the patients in the control group (p = 0.012). CONCLUSIONS The video constituted a useful and easy tool for reducing anxiety among patients requiring an oral biopsy.