Dental professionals find it difficult to identify patients with severe dental anxiety. At the same time, patients are reluctant to talk about their fears and want the staff to understand. A new paper published by the Department of Dentistry at Karolinska Institutet explores this dilemma.
The paper contains four studies that explore different aspects of dental anxiety. The first study involved 1,128 patients who rated their dental anxiety on a scale of 1 to 100 during a routine check-up. After the check-up, dentists and dental hygienists rated how anxious they thought the patients were. When anxiety levels were low, the ratings were consistent. However, the more anxious the patients were, the more the ratings differed. Staff are not good at identifying severe dental anxiety.
In interviews, dental staff described how they identify dental anxiety based on the patients’ stress levels. Staff find it hard to believe that someone who looks stress-free could be afraid of dental treatment, even if they say so. But when interviewing patients with severe dental anxiety, they said they feel very ashamed of their fears. Patients try to hide their dental anxiety and are reluctant to talk about it, while at the same time wanting the dentist to understand.
All this shows that we need a tool that can easily identify dental anxiety, says Markus Höglund. In the latest study, he translated this tool, called MDAS, into Swedish and validated it. It consists of five questions that accurately assess dental anxiety. The researchers hope that the form can be placed in waiting rooms and filled in by patients along with other health declarations.
“This could serve as a good basis for a discussion before the examination. Dental anxiety can be managed effectively and dentists are well trained in this area.” “This could help dental staff identify patients who need more support and help patients express their fears,” says Markus Höglund.
About 20% of Swedes feel very uncomfortable visiting the dentist and about 0.5% suffer from a severe phobia. The studies were funded by the Folk Protection Association of Östergötland (Folktandvården östergötland).
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