Dental Anxiety

Dental anxiety is a anxiety trace which is related to dental treatment and can be measured with the psychometric test EAD, Escala de Ansiedade Dentária ,which is a portuguese version of DAS Dental Anxiety Scale, for further information refer to my article "Anxiety and pain in Dentistry - Psychophisiologycal approach" - Revista da Associação Paulista de Cirurgiões Dentistas - 1995 - 49 (4) ; 285-290.

 Patients with results equal or higher than 15 points denotes a exacerbated dental anxiety. The incidence of such patients is around  8% of the population.

These patients experience more discomfort (expecting to have more pain and feeling more anxious) during the dental treatment than those with lower levels of dental anxiety.

There are three main factors which might induce the process of dental anxiety: 

• novelty

• uncertainty

• expectation

New experiences bring discomfort since they require the need to adapt to the new situation; the unknown is not pleasant to the human being; and as far as the expectation is concerned, it causes an increase in the anxiety level thus closing this 3 factors circle.

It is the dentist job to take into consideration the patient's anxiety level which by itself may not prevent the treatment but might bring great discomfort and even physical or psychologicals issues of difficult resolution.

The use of techniques which are described below might minimize the discomfort an pain associated with dental treatment:

• information regarding the procedures

• modeling positive behavior

• distracting the patient from the operating field

• relaxation techniques

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