A study of special care dental patient preference toward choice of mask and visor use by dental clinicians.

Abstract

Do patients have a preference for the clinician's choice of face protection (visor or mask), and can this make a difference to the patient's feelings of anxiety? In a normative sample (n = 72) of patients from Special Care Dentistry, different combinations of face protection were studied to see whether the patients clearly preferred one type over another, and whether that was related to the levels of anxiety they suffered, based on the modified dental anxiety scale. The majority of patients, 68% had the visor only as their first choice of face protection. This was followed by 22% having the mask only as their first choice and 10% having the visor and mask combination as their first choice. Patients with higher anxiety levels were more likely to believe that the type of face protection worn by the dentist would affect their levels of anxiety. The patients preferred the visor only option. As the level of anxiety rose, so did the percentage of patients that felt the style of protection worn by the dentist would affect their level of anxiety. The comments from patients referred to the benefit of nonverbal communication offered by the visor.