The impact of background music in reducing stress during preclinical dental laboratories

Abstract

Objective: The reported high level of stress among dental students and its consequences, considering the known benefits of background music (BM). This study was designed to evaluate students’ level of stress and impact of BM on their efficiency of work, performance, and learning ability during preclinical laboratory. Materials and Methods: In this cross-sectional questionnaire study, 61 preclinical students from the College of Dentistry, Ajman university-Fujairah campus who met the defined inclusion criteria participated. After a semester of the normal laboratory without BM, various genres of BM were introduced in the laboratory. Psychological stress assessment was done using the perceived stress scale. Students were asked to fill up a written feedback questionnaire at the end of 6 weeks of BM. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to study the statistical relationships among groups. Results: About 100% male and female students were found to be highly stressed due to exams and tests, 98% were stressed due to lack of time in the laboratory. About 82.5% females and 76% of males sample population expressed passion for music and also reported BM to be helpful to reduce stress in the preclinical laboratory and also to increase their concentration level. Conclusion: A strong positive relation has been shown in the reduction of stress with the BM in the preclinical laboratory.

Evaluation of the effect of Mozart’s music on stress, anxiety, and dexterity levels of dental students in preclinical endodontic training using a haptic virtual reality simulator

“…It has been shown that music therapy has a positive effect on patients' emotional states during dental treatments and also reduces the stress levels of clinicians during demanding procedures or busy schedules as well as undergraduate dental students who perform preclinical training [15,32,33]. Similar to the present ndings of this study, Felszeghy et al [21] also showed that the music reduced stress but also increased motivation of the dental students to learn and practice in preclinical cariology training.…”

“…Moreover, Varma et al [15] indicated a strong positive relation between stress and background music in the preclinical laboratory. In these two studies, various types of music were used.…”

“…Although preclinical training is aimed to be facilitated with new technological education models, the transition period from theoretical education to the preclinical stage still poses challenges. Especially the lack of theoretical knowledge or the inability to adequately re ect the learned information in preclinical training can cause high stress and anxiety levels in dentistry students [14,15]. Consequently, this stressful and anxious psychological state may impact students' learning and practice skills [16].…”

“…The impact of background music on stress reduction and practical performance in preclinical training has been investigated previously [15,21]. However, to our knowledge, there is no study that evaluate the stress and anxiety levels of students along with manual dexterity using HVRS under background music in preclinical endodontic training.…”

The Impact of Music on Stress Reduction and Academic Performance of Dental Students

“…However, it was not statistically significant. This is supported by a study done on Iranian dental students, which showed that BM can reduce the anxiety and depression of dental students [20,22]. Multiple reports on using BM claim that it alters mood, shifts temporal orientation, triggers physiological changes, minimizes anxiety, calms the mind, lowers distraction, enhances focus, and supports performance [23][24][25].…”