Background & objectives: One of the difficulties of community of dentists, especially dentists dealing with children, is the pain and fear of dental treatment. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of systematic desensitization and distraction on reducing fear and pain in children with dental problems.

Methods: This is a quasi-experimental study designed with pretest-posttest multi groups according to control group. For this purpose, 45 children with dental problems referred to the dental clinic of Ardabil was selected and divided into three groups of 15 people: systematic desensitization (n=15), distraction (n=15) and control group (n=15). All of three groups answered to dental fears survey and numeric scale of pain as pre-test. Then, the therapeutic method of systematic desensitization and distraction was performed on two experimental groups. After completion of the treatments, three groups answered to dental fear survey and numeric scale of pain. Multivariate analysis of covariance was used for the analysis of the data.

Results: The results showed a significant difference in the score of post-test between three groups in pain (F=197.27; p<0.001) anddental fear (F=178.36; p<0.001). LSD post hoc test results showed that systematic desensitization method was more effective in reduction of pain and the distraction method was more affective in reduction of dental fear.

Conclusion: The results of this study indicate that psychological interventions of distracting and systematic desensitization can be used to reduce fear and pain at pediatric clinics.