Abstract
BACKGROUND: In order to minimize the possibility of unsuccessful dental extraction procedure due to dental anxiety, there are several approaches that can be used, including music intervention. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of classical and religious Islamic music on reducing dental anxiety. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Two hundred and twenty-five muslim participants (105 males, 120 females) were recruited for this study and randomly assigned to three groups: classical music group, religious Islamic music group, and the group with no music intervention, equally in numbers. Participant's blood pressure (BP) and blood sample were taken prior to and after dental extraction to evaluate systolic and diastolic BP as well as nor-adrenaline plasma (NAP) level. All data were then analyzed by using t-test, ANOVA test, Mann-Whitney and Kruskawallis test. RESULTS: There was a decrease in NAP level in the religious music group (0.110 ng/mL) and the control group (0.013 ng/mL) when initial NAP level was compared to post extraction NAP level, whilst the classical music group showed an increase of 0.053 ng/mL. There were significant differences found between the religious Islamic music group and the classical music group (p = 0.041) as well as the control group (p = 0.028) for the difference between pre and post NAP level, of which the NAP level of the religious Islamic group participants were lower. CONCLUSION: Religious Islamic music was proven to be effective in reducing dental anxiety in Muslim participants compared to classical music. Despite, further evaluation in a more heterogenous population with various religious and cultural background is needed.