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Do dental anxiety questionnaires raise anxiety in dentally anxious adult patients? A two-wave panel study
1The Bute Medical School, University of St Andrews, Fife, UK. gerry.humphris@st-andrews.ac.uk
Objective:
To test whether or not dentally anxious patients attending the dentist for an appointment become more anxious when completing a dental anxiety questionnaire.
Basic Research Design:
Patients were initially screened to include only those who were dentally anxious. A pre- and post-test was planned with the completion of the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) questionnaire as the intervention.
Clinical Setting:
Two dental access centres in the North West of England.
Participants:
Initially, 583 patients were screened. Of these, 182 (31%) were found to be dentally anxious and were recruited into the study.
Main Outcome Measures:
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Scale Short Form.
Results:
State anxiety did not change with the completion of the MDAS questionnaire in either designated dental phobics (MDAS >or=19) or those classified as non-phobics (MDAS <19).
Conclusions:
The MDAS can be used to assess dental anxiety without raising anxiety in patients with or without self-reported dental phobia.
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