[Post-academic dental specialties 13. What are anxious dental patients most afraid of?].
What are the dental stimuli and situations that are experienced as more or less fear provoking by anxious dental patients?To investigate this question, 81 highly anxious patients, who were referred to a centre of special dental care were presented with a list of 76 potentially fear provoking objects and situations. The results showed that invasive dental procedures are considered as most terrifying by anxious patients, and that stimuli related to the dental office (dental chair), the dental team (dentist) and their equipment (protecting clothes) are considered as least fear provoking. Root canal treatments were rated as most fear provoking. The results emphasize the importance of assessing the whole range of potentially terrifying stimuli for each anxious patient. Only in this way an approach focused on the extinction of patients' dental fear can be successful.
Pieterse
C M
CM
Angstbegeleiding en Gehandicaptenzorg van de Stichting Bijzondere Tandheelkunde te Amsterdam.
de Jongh
A
A
Oosterink
F M D
FM
D016854:Dental Anxiety / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D003729:Dental Care / Q000523:psychology*; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D004498:Education, Dental, Continuing; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands; D010146:Pain / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000523:psychology*