Background The current study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a camouflaged dental syringe in reducing dental anxiety and pain during maxillary infiltration anesthesia in children aged 6–9 years, compared to a conventional syringe. Materials and Methods This randomized controlled clinical trial included healthy children aged 6–9 years who attended the Department of Paediatric Dentistry at Damascus University between December 2023 and May 2024. All participants required dental treatment in the maxilla involving buccal and palatal infiltration on one side. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: Group A received local anesthesia with a conventional syringe using the tell–show–do (TSD) technique, and Group B received anesthesia with a camouflaged syringe using the same TSD approach. Dental anxiety was assessed using the facial image (FI) scale. Dental pain was assessed using the face, legs, activity, cry, consolability (FLACC) behavioral pain scale and changes in pulse rate as a physiological indicator for both pain and anxiety. Primary outcome measures were recorded at baseline ( t 0 ), after the TSD technique ( t 1 ), and after anesthesia procedure ( t 2 ). Results A total of 70 children (mean age = 7.34 years) were enrolled. The FI scale scores and pulse rates increased significantly overtime in both groups ( p < 0.05), indicating heightened anxiety during the procedure. However, the camouflaged syringe group showed significantly lower FI scores at t 1 ( p = 0.001) and t 2 ( p = 0.005), indicating reduced anxiety levels compared to the control group. Similarly, the camouflaged syringe group reported a significantly lower FLACC score at t 2 ( p = 0.021), highlighting less reported pain. However, no significant differences were found in pulse rate across time points. Conclusions The use of a camouflaged syringe appears to be an effective strategy for reducing dental anxiety and pain in children undergoing local anesthetic injections in the maxillary arch. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: ISRCTN51025476
Darwish et al. (Thu,) studied this question.