Objective: The present study was designed to compare a child’s response to seeing and not seeing the needle during anesthetic injection by assessing the behavior level and the change of heart rate. Methodology: Sixty 4-5 year old children (30 boys and 30 girls) undergoing dental treatment were recruited in this study. The participants were randomly and equally divided into control (not seeing the needle) and intervention (seeing the needle) groups. During anesthetic injection, the behavior was video-recorded and the heart rate was also measured. Consequently, the behavior level was blindly evaluated by 3 calibrated dentists using a modified Frankl classification. Results: This study found no significant differences between both groups either in the aspect of behavior level (chi-square, p=1.000) or the change of heart rate (Mann-Whitney Test, p=0.609).
