Abstract
Patients tend to feel stress in association with dental treatment due to uneasiness and fear. We investigated the effects of providing advance notice and stress-coping traits on the physiological stress of patients during dental treatment. Sixty non-dental professionals (male, n = 26; female, n = 34; mean age, 49.9 years) were recruited for this study and informed consent was obtained. Subjects were given simulated dental treatment including three stimuli, air, percussion and running of an air turbine, with or without advance notice of the stimulation during dental treatment. Real-time sympathetic nerve activity (SN) and parasympathetic nerve activity (PN) during the treatment were measured using a biological information monitor. The stress-coping traits of each subject were examined using the Lazarus-Type Stress Coping Inventory (SCI). Correlations between the nerve-activity and scores of eight stress-coping strategies of SCI and the presence/absence of advance notice were analyzed. Age, types of stimuli and order of stimuli significantly affected SN, while age, types of stimuli, and the pattern of stimulation significantly affected PN. The interaction of the stress-coping trait and presence/absence of advance notice significantly affected PN. Providing advance notice may have different effects on physiological stress depending on how the patient copes with stress.
Highlights
In dental treatment, patients tend to feel fear and anxiety because surgical treatment is often performed in a dental clinic while the patient is conscious
The subjects were 60 non-dental professionals. We excepted those with dental phobia who had strong dental treatment anxiety which prevented them from going to the dental clinic
sympathetic nerve activity (SN) showed significant differences according to sex, while parasympathetic nerve activity (PN) showed significant differences according to sex and the pattern of stimulation (p < 0.05)
Summary
Patients tend to feel fear and anxiety because surgical treatment is often performed in a dental clinic while the patient is conscious. Huge and unreasonable fear or anxiety during treatment can become an excessive stressor and induce symptoms of dental phobia that disturbs routine dental checkups [1,2,3,4,5,6]. It has been known that providing patients with information about the procedure is a useful way to reduce patients’ stress during dental treatment because of an increasing sense of predictability [3,8]. Lazarus states in his transactional model of stress and coping that the stress reaction is not determined only by the stressor itself, and by cognitive appraisal and coping.
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