title: [The effect of dental health instruction before treatment on anxiety of patients with acute pulpitis].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effect of dental health instruction before treatment on dental anxiety of patients with acute pulpitis.
  
  
  METHODS
  One hundred and fifty-four patients with acute pulpitis treated in our department from July 2011 to June 2013, and aged from 19 years to 64 years, were selected. They were randomly divided into experimental group and control group. Seventy-eight patients of the experimental group accepted dental health instruction before treatment, while 76 cases in the control group received regular treatment. Two questionaires of dental anxiety were proceeded to both groups respectively before treatment. The data was analyzed for Student's t test and Chi-square test using SPSS12.0 software package.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Dental anxiety (DA) points of the experimental group after dental health instruction were significantly lower than that before treatment (t=4.1346, P<0.01). DA points of the experimental group after dental health instruction were significantly lower than that of the control group (t=6.2784, P<0.01). The acceptability of the experimental group towards the first treatment was significantly higher than of the control group. The completion rate of the following treatment of the experimental group was also significantly higher than that of the control group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Dental health instruction to patients with acute pulpitis before treatment are helpful to reduce the pressure and relieve the anxiety during the treatment, so that the patients will complete the first and the following treatment successfully.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Dentistry, Shanghai Ninth People's Hospital, College of Stomatology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine; Shanghai Key Laboratory of Stomatology. Shanghai 200011, China.E-mail:toby_t@sina.com.
authors.forename: Yu
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tang
authors.forename: Rong
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Du
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016854:Dental Anxiety; D005260:Female; D006267:Health Education, Dental / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011671:Pulpitis / Q000628:therapy*; D055815:Young Adult