Visit to the dentist office just got easier with the help of video games
A Quebec company is trying to make it easier for children to go to the dentist by using video games to distract them from the stress.
Jacob Abbruzzese, 10, was one of those using a virtual reality headset to keep his mind off the procedure and said it was one of the only times he was allowed to play as many video games as he wanted.
"My dad and my mom they don't really want me to go too much on it because it's going to fry my brain," he said.
With the headset on, children can somewhat forget about what the doctor is doing.
"That's where there's so much stuff on the wall so you're distracted from all the instruments because it does look like torture stuff," said dentist Dr. Elise Morency. "As soon as you put something that pushes away the tongue, which we need to do, it makes them gag right away. With the helmet, they start opening their mouth without me asking."
Morency has found the games are especially useful with autistic patients, where a visit to the dentist could mean sensory overload.
"We get in people's bubble a lot as a dentist," she said. "Just physically you're really close. The odours, the looks, everything is overstimulated. Even just leaning backwards and having someone come over here it's very intimidating. The autistic patients will react a lot to that. It keeps the visual and the auditive so intense that I can lessen the effect of the other things that I do."
The headsets were used during the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for kids who were nervous about getting a shot.
Starting next year, they will be studied at Sainte-Justine Hospital during dental work on neurodiverse patients.
"You're looking at sometimes very extensive procedures that can be very long and painful, so what we want to look at is the decrease in anxiety, pain, how easy it is to perform the procedure," said Jean-Simon FOrtin of Paperline Therapeutics.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.