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Some problems of dental treatment. Part 1. Patient anxiety: Some correlates and sex differences
Author(s) -
Smyth John S.
Publication year - 1993
Publication title -
australian dental journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.701
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1834-7819
pISSN - 0045-0421
DOI - 10.1111/j.1834-7819.1993.tb05516.x
Subject(s) - anxiety , medicine , adverse effect , dental care , dentistry , psychiatry
An analysis of questionnaire data obtained from 110 adult patients attending the Dental Department of the Lower Hutt Hospital and four private dental practices in Lower Hutt and Wellington, New Zealand indicates that patient treatment anxiety is more severe in women than men and that it is correlated with patients' descriptions of dental treatment. Altogether, survey findings indicate that treatment anxiety has adverse effects and that, with few exceptions, it results directly or indirectly from unpleasant experiences during dental treatment. Two of the most common of such experiences are evidently pain arising from the stimulation of sensitive tissue and oral injections. The eradication of treatment anxiety is therefore heavily dependent on the unobtrusive induction of profound analgesia prior to painful procedures.