Assessing the Attitudes and Clinical Practices of Ohio Dentists Treating Patients with Dental Anxiety

A cross sectional study on levels of dental anxiety, its influencing factors, and the preferred management techniques among patients in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND

Dental anxiety is marked by intense and irrational fear of dental procedures affecting millions of individuals worldwide. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between dental anxiety, its influencing factors, and the preferred management techniques among adults seeking dental care in Riyadh.

METHODS

A cross-sectional questionnaire study was carried out among 1734 patients who visited dental clinics in Riyadh. A self-administered questionnaire was developed and validated, comprising 28 closed-ended questions; it demonstrated good reliability and internal consistency (Cohen's kappa coefficient = 0.90, Cronbach's alpha coefficient = 0.86), it contained pre-validated Modified Dental Anxiety Scale to quantitatively assess the level of dental anxiety. Data analysis involved descriptive analysis, Chi-square test, Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple linear regression.

RESULTS

Majority (59.2%) of participants reported moderate anxiety, while 10.9% experienced high anxiety which was significantly linked to factors such as fear of pain (37.8%) and anaesthetic needles (25.8%). Topical anaesthetic gel (64.5%), pre-treatment explanations (78.9%), and conducive clinic environment (79.4%) were perceived as effective anxiety alleviators. A negative correlation existed between dental anxiety and preferred management techniques. Dental anxiety had significant association between gender (β = 0.910) and age (β = 0.263).

CONCLUSION

This study revealed that majority of participants had moderate dental anxiety, linked significantly to influencing factors like frequency and purpose of dental visits and past dental experiences. The study also found the preferred anxiety management methods among participants which included topical anaesthetic gel, pre-treatment explanations, and a comfortable clinic environment.

Leveraging technology to increase the disseminability of evidence-based treatment of dental fear: An uncontrolled pilot study

OBJECTIVES

U.S. and global estimates indicate that over 30% of adults fear receiving dental care, including over 20% who have visited a dentist in the last year, leading to avoidance and degraded oral and systemic health. Although evidence-based cognitive-behavioral treatments for dental fear (CBT-DF) exist, they have little impact on the millions who seek dental care annually because they are not disseminable (6 h of in-chair time, delivered only in person at a few sites). We developed a disseminable CBT-DF stepped-care treatment comprising (Step 1) a mobile-health application and, for those who remain fearful, (Step 2) a 1-h, one-on-one psychological treatment session that allows practice during exposure to the patient's most-feared stimuli. We hypothesized that the treatment would (a) be rated highly on usability and credibility and (b) result in clinically consequential (i.e., lowering fear into the 0-3 "no/low fear" zone) and statistically significant changes in global dental fear.

METHOD

Racially/ethnically diverse patients (N = 48) with moderate to severe dental fear were recruited; all completed Step 1, and n = 16 completed Step 2.

RESULTS

As hypothesized, users found the stepped-care treatment highly usable, credible, and helpful. Critically, this stepped-care approach produced reductions in patients' dental fear that were both clinically consequential (with half no longer fearful) and statistically significant (d = 1.11).

CONCLUSIONS

This usable, credible, stepped-care approach to dental fear treatment holds promise for liberating evidence-based CBT-DF from specialty clinics, allowing broad dissemination.

Influence of dentists’ age, gender, working experience, and practitioner type on the use of behaviour management techniques in dental treatment of children

Abstract

Aim: The objective of the present study was to investigate the influence of dentists’ age, gender, working experience, and practitioner type on the use of non-pharmacological behaviour management techniques in the treatment of paediatric dental patients.

Materials and methods: An anonymous, self-completion survey was mailed to 200 randomly selected dentists. The recorded information included items on practitioner’s gender, age, working experience, specialty status, and frequency of using different non-pharmacological behaviour management techniques as well as the factors influencing the choice for specific behaviour guidance techniques.

Results: Significant differences between age/gender distributions were seen in the use of the basic non-pharmacological behaviour management techniques. Younger females were more likely to indicate that they were comfortable using communicative guidance techniques. The respondents in the over-40 age group did not rely at all on negative reinforcement and parental presence/absence techniques during the dental treatment of children (p<0.05). Dental practitioners with working experience of fewer than 10 years were more likely to utilize behaviour guidance techniques in attending paediatric dental patients compared to their older colleagues. No significant difference by practitioner types was seen in the use of the basic behaviour management techniques (p>0.05).

Conclusions: The present study showed age, gender, working experience, and practitioner type statistically significant differences in the use of behaviour management techniques during the dental treatment of children. The choice of a technique was influenced mainly by personal factors associated with the physical and psychological health of the child.