Evaluation of Efficacy of Visual Illusion Tasks in Assessing the Psychodynamic State of Children Aged 7 to 10 Years Prior to Dental Treatment

Abstract Dental anxiety has a great impact on quality of dental treatment. There are various scales available that are used to assess the state of mind. Visual illusions are the phenomenon where the perception of image differs from reality. These can help to assess the exact psychodynamic state by directly evaluating brain processing. The aim of this article was to assess the efficacy of visual illusion tasks in evaluating the psychodynamic state of children aged 7 to 10 years prior to dental treatment. A total of 62 children aged 7 to 10 years were included in the study. They were asked to complete five visual illusion tasks prior to dental treatment in two trials by adjusting a comparison stimulus to match the standard stimuli. Baseline anxiety was assessed using the Venham anxiety score. The susceptibility index was checked for each task and the scorings were then correlated with Venham's anxiety scores. Intergroup comparison between susceptibility index and Venham's anxiety score was done using one-way analysis of variance and a highly significant difference was observed for all illusion tasks. Pearson's correlation showed a moderate correlation between child's anxiety score and susceptibility index of all visual illusion tasks. Visual illusion tasks can be effectively used for assessing the psychodynamic state of the children prior to dental treatment.