VR visits to the beach make going to the dentist more relaxing
Virtual reality can be employed to make going to the dentist a more relaxing experience, scientists say. A quick VR visit to the beach can improve routine dental procedures.
Waves splashing, wind blowing and the calls of the seagulls. This is what comes to mind when thinking about walks on the beach. And now scientists say that these sensations could also make our visits to the dentist a little bit more relaxing.
A team of researchers at the Universities of Plymouth, Exeter and Birmingham worked with Torrington Dental Practice in Devon to find out how VR can be used in healthcare in order to improve, in this case, the patient’s experience during routine dental procedures, such as fillings and tooth extractions.
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Patients, who had agreed to take part in the study were randomly allocated to one of three conditions. Some received a standard care while others have a virtual walk around Wembury beach in Devon, using a headset and handheld controller. A third group had a walk around an anonymous virtual reality city.
Results found that those who ‘walked’ around Wembury were less anxious, experienced less pain, and had more positive recollections of their treatment a week later, than those in the standard care condition. These benefits were not found for those who walked around the virtual city.
“The use of virtual reality in health care settings is on the rise but we need more rigorous evidence of whether it actually improves patient experiences”, said Dr. Karin Tanja-Dijkstra, lead author of the study.”Our research demonstrates that under the right conditions, this technology can be used to help both patients and practitioners.”
According to the scientists, the fact that the patients that took a virtual trip to the beach were the only ones experiencing a reduction in stress is consistent with other works that showed that natural environments, and marine environments in particular, can help reduce stress and anxiety.
“We have done a lot of work recently which suggests that people are happiest and most relaxed when they are at the seaside”, said co-author Dr Mathew White. “So it seemed only natural to investigate whether we could ‘bottle’ this experience and use it to help people in potentially stressful healthcare contexts.”
Scientists are now researching if Virtual Wembury can help patients in other medical contexts and whether certain additions to the virtual environment could make the experience even better.
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