Non-Pharmacological Interventions for Reducing Fear and Anxiety in Patients Undergoing Third Molar Extraction under Local Anesthesia: Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

This report investigated the effectiveness of non-pharmacological interventions for reducing dental fear and anxiety in patients undergoing third molar extraction under local anesthesia. In November 2020, multiple electronic databases (Cochrane, EMBASE, MEDLINE, PsycInfo, PsycArticles, PubMed, and Web of Science) were searched for articles published in English. Inclusion criteria were randomized-controlled trials reporting the effectiveness of any non-pharmacological interventions in reducing fear or anxiety levels in patients with third molar extraction. A total of 3015 studies by electronic search and 2 studies by hand search were identified. After screening, 21 studies were eligible for systematic review. Seven studies were included in the meta-analysis. Study selection, data extraction, and quality assessment of the included studies were performed by two independent investigators. The anxiety levels after intervention in each study were pooled and meta-analyzed by the random-effect model. A significant reduction in anxiety level was observed in non-pharmacological intervention groups (SMD = −0.32; 95% CI −0.57 to −0.07; p = 0.01). Subgroup analyses showed that a significant anxiety reduction by non-pharmacological interventions could be demonstrated by pooled data from studies using psychometric assessments, but not from studies using physiological assessments. Non-pharmacological interventions appear to reduce fear and anxiety levels in patients undergoing third molar extraction under local anesthesia.