Reducing Anxiety for Dental Visits

Abstract : This work addresses children’s (under 6 years of age) fear and apprehension to visit dental clinics. We present a bespoke interactive Virtual Reality reproduction of the physical dental clinic, augmented with virtual characters and enriched with gamification style information for a richer user experience. The experience allows the user to navigate and familiarise themselves with the location and the procedures they will undertake before visiting the clinic. The experience is now being piloted at the Dental Public Health at the University Hospital of Wales.