Dental anxiety can be a serious condition that can jeopardize oral health. It’s important for patients to talk about their anxieties with their dentists so that together they can find a way to manage them.
Many people develop dental anxiety in childhood or adolescence. Several self-report questionnaires have been developed to assess and quantify dental anxiety.
Fear of Pain
Many people with dental anxiety Columbia SC have reported experiencing pain and trauma during previous dental procedures. While these experiences may be a contributor, the fear of pain is often not the only reason that a person feels anxious about visiting the dentist.
In addition, studies based on retrospective accounts (such as Davey’s 1989 and de Jongh’s 1995) are prone to the effects of attribution, whereby individuals with high trait anxiety tend to attribute their current feelings to past events. This can make it difficult to disentangle the etiology of these phenomena.
Additionally, the term “fear” and “anxiety” are sometimes used interchangeably, although a proper distinction should be made between the two. Fear is a basic emotion that activates the fight or flight response, whereas anxiety is a conditioned response associated with anticipatory and worry about a future threat. The use of the word fear instead of anxiety has implications for the design and implementation of behavioral treatments.
Fear of the Dentist
Dental fear ranges from a mild uneasiness to full-blown phobia. People who are extremely fearful or anxious may not go to the dentist for years, leading to serious problems that require extensive treatment. Fear of the dentist can even have social implications, making it harder to get a job or date.
Many studies use questionnaires to assess anxiety and phobia, but there are problems with the results. People’s definitions of anxiety can vary considerably, and the terms fear and phobia are used interchangeably in some studies. The difference between these two constructs is important because phobias are defined as a pathological reaction to a specific object or situation.
While some research supports the idea that traumatic experiences can lead to dental anxiety, other research indicates that individual differences in susceptibility may be important. A number of studies have suggested that a person’s personality and temperament can predict their level of dental anxiety. Davey’s study with students, for example, indicated that a high degree of anxiety was associated with negative perceptions of the dentist’s behavior, such as being impersonal or uncaring.
Fear of the Procedure
It appears that vicarious conditioning plays a significant role in dental anxiety for many patients. However, other factors may contribute to the development of this disorder as well. For example, individuals who believe they are a victim of the medical establishment (assumption that health outcomes depend on chance and/or the care of a professional) appear to be more likely to develop dental anxiety than those who do not.
Studies of dental anxiety Columbia SC typically involve questionnaires designed to measure fear and/or aversion to oral treatment. The most widely used instrument is Corah’s Dental Anxiety Scale. It measures four situations involving the patient’s dental visit and asks them to rate how anxious they would be in each one.
Another frequently used method to identify dental fear involves a semi-structured interview and the specific phobia module of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM-IV (Berggren, 1993). These studies have shown that patients with elevated levels of anxiety have more negative thoughts and feelings, worse sleep patterns, increased use of medication, greater somatization, and impaired social and occupational functioning than do those without such symptoms.
Fear of Embarrassment
The fear of embarrassment is one that many people with dental anxiety share. This can be due to the fear of pain, loss of control, or just being in the presence of a dentist. Regardless, this can lead to feelings of inadequacy, depression, and even self-harm.
Research is beginning to examine the role of this complex in the etiology of dental anxiety. It is suggested that this may explain why onset is often seen in childhood or adolescence and why it is linked to behavioral inhibition.
Most studies in this area use self-report measures to assess dental anxiety, with some utilizing behavior analytic techniques (BATs) to measure anticipatory anxiety and avoidance responses to simulated dental situations. However, these measures do not address the criteria of DSM-IV phobia (iv) that the feared stimulus causes significant distress and impairment of function. This is important because dental phobia can result in loss of work and social activities, and the quality of life of affected individuals can be poor.