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Development of a scale to measure the social and psychological effects of severe dental anxiety: social attributes of the Dental Anxiety Scale
Author(s) -
Kent Gerry,
Rubin Gordon,
Getz Tracy,
Humphris Gerry
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
community dentistry and oral epidemiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.061
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1600-0528
pISSN - 0301-5661
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0528.1996.tb00886.x
Subject(s) - anxiety , medicine , scale (ratio) , social anxiety , clinical psychology , dental fear , psychiatry , physics , quantum mechanics
This paper describes the development of a scale designed to measure the extent to which severe dental anxiety or phobia affects patients' social well‐being outside of the dental setting. Items initially selected on the basis of clinical experience were administered to two groups: 78 patients seeking help for severe anxiety and 88 patients attending the general clinic of a dental hospital. Items on the scale discriminated between these two groups and also between patients who were reluctant to attend even when experiencing symptoms and those who attend more regularly. Although the scale correlated moderately well with Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale, factor analysis indicated that its items assess the effects of severe anxiety on the two domains of psychological reactions and social inhibition as they occur as indirect effects of dental care. The scale could be included in assessments designed to measure the social and psychological effects of severe dental anxiety.