Overlap between dental anxiety and blood-injury fears: psychological characteristics and response to dental treatment.
The relationship between dental anxiety and blood/body injury (BI) fears was examined in a sample of 1420 adults. Based on their responses to two mail questionnaires, they were classified into one of four groups: Group 1--neither dentally anxious nor BI fearful; Group 2--BI fearful only; Group 3--dentally anxious only; Group 4--both dentally anxious and BI fearful. Overall, only 16% of dentally anxious subjects were BI fearful while 31.6% of those with high levels of BI fears were dentally anxious. While subjects in Group 2 were more fearful of dentistry than those in Group 1, they were substantially less so than subjects in Groups 3 and 4. Moreover, even BI stimuli in the dental setting evoked lower levels of anxiety for subjects in Group 2 compared to Group 3 and 4. However, rates of fainting or near fainting experiences in the dental situation were similar for all three groups. Group 3 and 4 were similar in terms of fear evoking stimuli and patterns of anxiety response. Subjects in Group 4 had more agoraphobic symptoms and social interaction fears and had higher scores on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index and Speilberger Trait Anxiety Index. This suggests that Group 4 is comprised of individuals who are more likely to be multiphobic and exhibit generalized anxiety states. Although BI fears are a significant component of dental anxiety, their overall contribution is relatively small.
Locker
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D
Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Shapiro
D
D
Liddell
A
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001769:Blood; D002170:Canada; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000523:psychology*; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010698:Phobic Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D015995:Prevalence; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D012737:Sex Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000523:psychology*