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Catastrophizing, anxiety and pain during dental hygiene treatment
1Department of Psychology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. sully@is.dal.ca
Objectives:
This study examined the relations between catastrophizing, dental anxiety, and pain during dental hygiene treatment.
Methods:
Participants were 78 (32 men, 46 women) consecutive referrals to the Dalhousie University Dental Clinic. All patients were scheduled for a scaling procedure performed by senior dental hygiene students. Following treatment, patients completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale and the Dental Anxiety Scale - Revised, and were asked to rate the degree of pain they experienced during the scaling procedure.
Results:
Regression analyses revealed that age and the rumination subscale of the Pain Catastrophizing Scale were significant predictors of pain, even when controlling for gender, and oral hygiene status.
Conclusions:
The findings suggest that excessive focus on pain sensations may be one of the mechanisms by which catastrophizing leads to increased pain. The clinical challenges will be to develop cost- and time-effective means of identifying individuals who catastrophize and to implement interventions to reduce their level of distress.