Open AccessRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DENTAL ANXIETY AND PAIN EXPERIENCE DURING DENTAL EXTRACTIONS
Author(s) -
Santhosh Kumar
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asian journal of pharmaceutical and clinical research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2455-3891
pISSN - 0974-2441
DOI - 10.22159/ajpcr.2017.v10i3.16518
Subject(s) - anxiety , sedation , medicine , visual analogue scale , dental extraction , dentistry , rating scale , physical therapy , anesthesia , psychology , psychiatry , developmental psychology
Objective: To assess the effects of anxiety on pain experienced during dental extractions.Methods: A prospective study was conducted during the academic year July-September 2016, randomly among 60 dental patients who visited theoutpatient Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Saveetha Dental College, Saveetha University, Chennai, for single tooth extraction. Anxietywas measured using the Hamilton anxiety rating scale. The pain was measured using the pain visual analog scale (VAS) for the level of pain perceivedduring extraction. Data collected were analyzed with Statistical Package for Social Sciences for Windows, Version 16.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA)and results obtained.Results: From regression analysis, R2=0.605 which meant that the independent variable (anxiety) explained 60.50% of the variability of the dependentvariable (pain) with significant t-value. There was a statistically significant correlation between VAS and total anxiety score (p<0.05). This stronglysuggests that an increase in pain level is associated with an increase in anxiety level.Conclusion: Pre-operative dental anxiety is a major predictor of pain experienced by patients during dental extractions. Hence, it is an important toreduce anxiety before treatment to reduce pain during the treatment. Pharmacologic modalities like sedation can be used for reducing anxiety andpain related to the treatment in indicated patients.Keywords: Dental anxiety, Sedation, Anesthesia, Pain, Tooth extraction.