Dental fear among university employees: implications for dental education

We surveyed 350 University of Washington permanent employees chosen randomly from among both faculty and staff. The aim was to determine the extent and nature of dental anxiety in the university population potentially available for teaching clinics. In addition, the relationship of fears to self-reported dental health, utilization of dental care, and other general and mental health issues was examined. Dental anxiety was prevalent in this population; 13 percent of subjects reported high dental fear. In contrast to respondents with lower dental fear, subjects with clinically significant fear reported poorer perceived dental health, a longer interval since their last dental appointment, a higher frequency of past fear behaviors, more physical symptoms during last dental injection, and higher percentage of symptoms of anxiety and depression. Dental anxiety was not associated with poorer perceived general health or a longer interval since the last dental injection. University employees are a rich source of potential teaching patients for achieving curricular requirements for managing anxious patients. Student clinicians need guidance to be able to recognize fearful patients; they also need instruction about psychiatric conditions like anxiety and depression in order to be able to better manage and prevent dropouts in their patient roster.