title: Assessing the anxious patient.
abstract: Dental anxiety is a problem for many adults and children and for many patients anxiety acts as a barrier to treatment: avoidance of treatment, irregular attendance or attendance for emergency treatment only being typical ways of dealing with the problem. For the dental team a patient's anxiety poses major management problems, as an anxious patient may require more time for treatment, is very likely to miss appointments and may have raised pain thresholds. A major cause of stress for clinicians is the management of anxiety in their patients.
authors.affiliation: University of Wales College of Medicine.
authors.forename: Barbara L
authors.initials: BL
authors.lastname: Chadwick
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D001288:Attention; D002648:Child; D002652:Child Behavior; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D003887:Desensitization, Psychologic; D004645:Empathy; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007389:Internal-External Control; D007858:Learning; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D012064:Relaxation Therapy; D012737:Sex Factors