Effect of Music on Young Practitioner's Stress During Endodontic Treatment

Root canal treatment (RCT) consists in eliminating infected and /or inflammatory tissues inside the root canal system of the tooth by a chemo-mechanical preparation and then filling the latter in a three-dimensional, bacteriostatic and durable way to enable healing. This treatment is commonly carried out and can sometimes be long and tedious, as, for instance, on molars with several roots. According to numerous studies, patients consider endodontic treatment as one of the most stress-inducing dental procedures. The preliminary study Stressendo has shown that anesthesia is the most stressful step for the patient. In some studies, patients also fear the pain and discomfort during RCT. Stress and pain have neurological consequences including the activation of neuroendocrine system which secretes catecholamines. Those act on the heart by increasing the heart rate and arterial pressure. Two studies demonstrated that relaxing music enables the patient to be less stressed during RCT. Another study has shown that music also enables the patient to feel less painful during dental care. This would be explained by the fact that music can help reducing the sound perceived as stressful for the patients, in addition to the distraction it produces. Music also has a physiological and psychological role, which enables the patient to feel more relaxed. However, it would depend on its style and the fact that the patient likes it or not. Many studies demonstrated that when the patient likes the music used, the reduction of anxiety is higher than with relaxing music. RCTs are stressful for the patient, but one must keep in mind that it is also stressful for the practitioner, and particularly for students who start their dental practice. The students have to treat patients with many parameters to manage. Combining theoretical and clinical practice knowledge is difficult and stressful for students according to a study. Endodontic and prosthetic cares are considered the most demanding by students. RCT requires high degree of precision in gestures and patience because those technical acts are, in part, blindly realised and can be long. In a preliminary study, it was found that the most stress-inducing steps for the students during endodontic treatment are root-canal preparation and obturation. The beneficial side of listening to music (relaxing music) on the patient's stress during RCT has been proved; but to our knowledge, no study assessed the effect of listening to appreciated music on the stress of the practitioner and more particularly of the young practitioner, during endodontic treatment and in particular root canal preparation.This is the main aim of this study.