A randomized clinical trial comparing the effects of music and informative videos on patient anxiety during root canal treatment and retreatment.

This randomized clinical trial investigated the effectiveness of music and informative videos as distraction techniques to reduce patient anxiety during root canal treatment and retreatment. Ninety systemically healthy patients were randomly assigned to three groups: music intervention, informative video intervention, or no distraction (control). Results showed that listening to music significantly decreased systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and pain scores compared to both the informative video and control groups, indicating greater anxiety reduction. While informative videos lowered pain scores posttreatment compared to baseline, they did not significantly reduce physiological anxiety markers relative to controls. The study concludes that music is a more effective nonpharmacologic tool than preoperative informative videos for alleviating anxiety in patients undergoing root canal procedures.