Anxiety, pain and discomfort associated with dental treatment

The aims of the study were to describe the level of anxiety and pain/discomfort associated with dental treatment in two samples (N = 1288 and N = 2382) representative of an adult population, and to assess the statistical effects of these variables on utilization of dental services (dental attendance measures, expenditure, and items of dental treatment received during the last year). The prevalence of high dental anxiety in the samples as measured by Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale, the Dental Fear Scale, and the Dental Anxiety Question was 4.2%, 7.1% and 5.4%, respectively. Rather large proportions of the respondents judged dental treatment to be painful or uncomfortable: between 20 and 30% rated their last dental visit as moderately painful or worse; about 60% reported having had at least one very painful experience, and 5-6% experienced dental treatment in general to be very painful. Dental anxiety was significantly related to pain reports (correlations in the 0.32-0.48 range). There were no differences between the youngest age group (15-19 yr) and the rest of the respondents in Study II with regard to dental pain ratings. Possible explanations for these findings are discussed. The effects of dental pain and anxiety on utilization measures, although attaining significance in several of the analyses, were generally weak. Both studies demonstrated few significant differences between individuals with high dental anxiety and the rest of the study samples with respect to type and extent of dental treatment received during the last year. Thus, these data seem to show that many dentally anxious patients seek out and undergo dental treatment despite high fear levels.