Abstract
Dental anxiety is a common problem and is considered an obstacle to providing quality dental care to patients. The present study was conducted to determine the prevalence of dental anxiety among patients under going restorative procedures in a university dental clinic, to determine the effect of a combination of psychological interventions (psychoeducation, relaxation therapy, and modeling technique) in reducing dental anxiety within and between experimental and control groups, and to identify differences in concern or anxiety towards dental procedures between pre-assessment, post-assessment, and follow-up assessment of experimental and control groups. Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale, Revised (DAS-R) measured dental anxiety prevalence, and the Dental Concerns Assessment (DCA) identified factors causing dental anxiety. Patients experiencing dental anxiety were randomly assigned into an experimental or control group. Experimental group patients (n=15) received a 45-minute session of a combination of psychological interventions to reduce dental anxiety, whereas control group patients (n=15) received dental treatment as usual from general dental practitioners. A t-test and One-way analysis of variance were used for analyses. Results show that out of 65 patients, 41 had dental anxiety (prevalence 63.1%). Experimental group patients showed significant reduction in the post-assessment and follow-up DAS-R scores (F=18.85, P=<0.01) compared with pre-assessment scores. Significant reductions in post-assessment DCA scores were found for extraction, injection, and sound or vibration of the drill for the experimental group compared with pre-assessment scores (P<0.03). Over all, the combination of psychoeducation, relaxation therapy and modeling technique was effective at reducing dental concern and anxiety of dental procedures.
Highlights
There were no differences between groups for dental anxiety, gender, age, and education (P>0.09)
There were no significant differences between groups
The present study investigated the effectiveness of a combination of Psychological Education (PE), Brief Relaxation Therapy (BRT), and Modeling Technique (MT) for managing dental anxiety
Summary
Dental anxiety has been described as “an overwhelming feeling of tension, dread and apprehension associated with an unknown threat involving dentistry” (Bray et al, 2009) and is the fifth most commonly feared situation (Hmud & Walsh, 2009). Hmud and Walsh (2009) described dental anxiety as a complex phenomenon that may result from characteristics specific to an individual patient, a fear of pain, previous dental experiences that were traumatic, previous negative dental experiences of family members or friends, and fears about blood-related injury.One of the consequences of dental anxiety is that patients avoid treatment for dental problems, resulting in poor oral health status (Hmud & Walsh, 2009). An epidemiology study revealed that about 30% of dental anxiety patients did not have regular dental attendance (Hagglin et al, 1996), which can lead to significant deterioration of oral health and contribute to a vicious cycle of cumulative anxiety and increasing avoidance (Armfield, Stewart, & Spencer, 2007). One study found this behavior was highly correlated with anxiety level, comorbidity problems, and decayed, missing, and filled surfaces scores (Eitner et al, 2006). The dental anxiety of patients can be a source of stress for ijps.ccsenet.org
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