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Is dental phobia a blood-injection-injury phobia?
C M H H van Houtem1, I H A Aartman, D I Boomsma
1Department of Social Dentistry and Behavioural Sciences ACTA, University of Amsterdam and VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Background:
Dental phobia is part of the Blood-Injection-Injury (B-I-I) phobia subtype of specific phobia within DSM-IV-TR. To investigate the conceptual validity of this classification, the purpose of the present study was to determine the co-occurrence of dental phobia, typical dental (and B-I-I related) fears, vasovagal fainting, and avoidance of dental care.
Method:
Data were collected by an online survey in Dutch twin families (n = 11,213).
Results:
Individuals with a positive screen of dental phobia (0.4% of the sample) rated typical B-I-I-related stimuli as relatively little anxiety provoking (e.g. of all 28 fears the stimulus "the sight of blood" was ranked lowest). Presence of dental phobia was significantly associated with a history of dizziness or fainting during dental treatment (OR = 3.4; 95% CI: 1.5-8.1), but of the dental phobic individuals only 13.0% reported a history of dizziness or fainting during dental treatment. Presence of dental phobia (OR = 5.0; 95% CI: 2.8-8.8) was found to be associated with avoidance of dental care, but a history of dizziness or fainting during dental treatment was not (OR = 1.0; 95% CI: 0.8-1.2).
Conclusions:
The present findings converge to the conclusion that dental phobia should be considered a specific phobia subtype independent of the B-I-I cluster within the DSM classification system.
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