Abstract
Background: This study was aimed at the comparison of the effect of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) on dental anxiety. Methods: The present clinical trial was performed with a pretest-posttest design, a control group, and a 3-month follow-up period on patients with dental anxiety. The study participants were 48 patients who were selected through convenience sampling and randomly assigned to 2 experimental groups and one control group. The first experimental group received 10 weekly 90-minute sessions of ACT and the second group received 10 weekly 90-minute sessions of CBT. The control group received no intervention. The Dental Anxiety Inventory (DAI) was used to assess the dependent variable and Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) and a pulse oximeter were used as screening tools. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA in SPSS software. Results: The results showed a significant difference between the experimental groups and the control group in terms of dental anxiety (P 0.05). Moreover, there was no significant difference between the ACT and CBT groups (P > 0.05), but there was a significant difference between the 2 treatment groups and the control group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: ACT and CBT can be used to reduce dental anxiety, and thus, prevent treatment avoidance.
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