Undergraduate dental students completed a modified State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Form Y-1 before and after entering a virtual dental clinic whose walls were blue, green or yellow, whose imagery showed a mountain, sea or nautilus shell, and whose final condition combined the most preferred colour and image. Total anxiety scores fell significantly with blue or yellow walls and with mountain or sea images. Blue plus mountain reduced anxiety in every participant, yet the authors found no added advantage over either colour or nature imagery alone. This is short-term experimental evidence from VR, not proof that renovating a real clinic reduces anxiety or improves clinical outcomes.
Key findings
- Blue and yellow walls were associated with significant reductions in total anxiety scores at p
- Blue significantly increased positive-anxiety scores and decreased negative-anxiety scores, whereas yellow reduced only the negative component as reported in the abstract.
- Mountain and sea images significantly reduced anxiety; both increased positive and decreased negative scores, with the mountain scene preferred most.
- Blue combined with the mountain image reduced anxiety in all participants, but the authors concluded that colour or nature imagery alone was about as effective as the combination.
- The abstract gives p-values but not participant count, mean differences, confidence intervals or multiplicity correction, preventing assessment of magnitude and precision.
Why this matters globally
The study is useful as a VR-based concept screen before costly real-space modification, linking environmental design with dental-student wellbeing. Replication with adequate samples, randomised condition order, effect-size reporting and real-clinic validation could inform low-cost environmental-design trials. Current evidence is insufficient for a clinic-colour standard or claims about patient outcomes.
Thai researcher contribution
A Naresuan University team combined dentistry, preventive dentistry and architecture to test clinic-design elements in a virtual setting. The work illustrates a Thai university contribution to interdisciplinary evidence that could later be tested in real learning and healthcare spaces.
Limitations to consider
The abstract omits sample size, power calculation, sequence randomisation or counterbalancing, washout and effect sizes with confidence intervals. A modified STAI requires validity evidence in this context. Repeated exposure may introduce order, habituation and demand effects, while multiple condition tests risk false positives without multiplicity control. Dental students and immediate VR ratings cannot yet be generalised to patients, real clinics, sustained anxiety or clinical outcomes.