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
Liberal MP says she's leaving politics over disrespectful dialogue, threats, misogyny
Liberal MP Pam Damoff says she won't run again in the next federal election, saying she has experienced misogyny, disrespectful dialogue in politics and threats to her life.
Concerns about Plexiglass prompt inspections at some Loblaws locations in Ottawa
Inspections are underway at more than one Loblaws location in Ottawa after complaints were filed about tall Plexiglass barriers.
Federal employees will be required to spend 3 days a week in the office
Starting in September, public servants in the core public administration will be required to work in the office a minimum of three days a week. The Treasury Board Secretariat says executives will need to be in the office four days per week.
OPP officer said 'someone's going to get hurt' before wrong-way Hwy. 401 crash
As multiple Durham police cruisers were chasing a robbery suspect on the wrong side of Highway 401 Monday night, an Ontario Provincial Police officer shared his concerns, telling a dispatcher, "Someone's going to get hurt."
Ont. woman who faked pregnancy to defraud doulas arrested again on similar charges
Victims of a Brantford, Ont., woman who was sentenced to house arrest earlier this year for defrauding and deceiving doulas say they’re not surprised she’s been apprehended again on similar charges.
Five human skeletons, missing hands and feet, found outside house of Nazi leader Hermann Göring
Archeologists have unearthed the skeletons of five people, missing their hands and feet, at a former Nazi military base in Poland.
Poilievre returns to House unrepentant for calling Trudeau 'wacko,' Speaker not resigning
An unrepentant Pierre Poilievre returned to the House of Commons on Wednesday to pepper the prime minister about his drug decriminalization policies after being booted the day prior for refusing to take back calling Justin Trudeau 'wacko' over his approach to the issue.
Construction begins on LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa
Shovels have hit the ground for constuction on Canada's LGBTQ2S+ national monument in Ottawa.
B.C. man awarded $5,000 in damages in first-of-it-kind intimate image case
In a first-of-its-kind case, a B.C. tribunal has ruled on a dispute involving the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, awarding damages and issuing orders that the photos be destroyed and taken offline.