# Evaluating the Effects of Animal Therapy on Anxiety in Pediatric Dental Patients

> **NIH NIH R03** · UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL · 2024 · $154,111

## Abstract

ABSTRACT.
Dental anxiety (DA) affects a striking 50-80% of adults and 6-22% of children. Individuals affected by DA often
exhibit disruptive behavior and avoidance of dental care, leading to major adverse health outcomes, including
increased rates of decay, pain, extractions, infections, emergent care and even hospitalization. DA frequently
develops in childhood due to traumatic experiences and can lead to lifelong DA. Behavioral management
techniques aimed at improving dental experiences must be employed during childhood to avoid these
sequelae. For patients with severe anxiety and decay, pharmacological interventions may be used. However,
sedatives and general anesthesia are frequently met with caregiver objections, as they carry low risks for
adverse events, including neurological injury and death. Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) with a trained therapy
dog has been used widely as a non-pharmacologic behavior guidance approach in numerous medical settings.
Though in its nascent stages in dentistry, the novel use of AAT in a pediatric population holds promise for
behavior management, reducing anxiety, mitigating pain, and creating positive associations. Furthermore, our
data from 800 patients and parents confirm a pervasive desire for canine AAT in dentistry. The objective of this
study is to evaluate whether AAT alleviates stress and improves perceptions during pediatric dental care. We
hypothesize that AAT significantly alleviates biometric and self-reported measures of anxiety and pain in
pediatric dental patients (with relative measure improvements of >20%). We propose to evaluate effects of
AAT on objective measures of stress and pain during preventative treatment using salivary stress hormones,
heart rate, sweat response, and observational coding data (Aim 1) along with patients' perceptions of dental
pain, anxiety, and future visits with validated questionnaires (Aim 2). As part of an ongoing randomized clinical
trial, data are collected from patients (age 4-7 years) randomized to a short AAT protocol, a long AAT protocol
and an active control with a dental exam and cleaning (N=180, 60 per group). Altogether, data generated from
these aims will be used to measure the impact of AAT on pediatric dental patients to guide implementation.
This secondary data analysis project will generate results on feasible, rapidly implementable protocols for AAT
use in dentistry to mitigate DA and improve experiences, to reduce dental avoidance and its significant health
sequelae. Our interdisciplinary team is uniquely qualified to conduct the proposed work as we have the
innovative methodologies, RCT patient data and samples, BLS2 facilities, and expertise to achieve our aims.
This application includes collaboration between experienced and junior faculty across multiple disciplines to
ensure the rigor and translatability of our findings.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10887553
- **Project number:** 5R03DE032768-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIV OF NORTH CAROLINA CHAPEL HILL
- **Principal Investigator:** Laura Anne Jacox
- **Activity code:** R03 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $154,111
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-07-15 → 2026-07-14

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10887553

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10887553, Evaluating the Effects of Animal Therapy on Anxiety in Pediatric Dental Patients (5R03DE032768-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10887553. Licensed CC0.

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