Do dental anxiety questionnaires raise anxiety in dentally anxious adult patients? A two-wave panel study.

OBJECTIVE

To test whether or not dentally anxious patients attending the dentist for an appointment become more anxious when completing a dental anxiety questionnaire.

BASIC RESEARCH DESIGN

Patients were initially screened to include only those who were dentally anxious. A pre- and post-test was planned with the completion of the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS) questionnaire as the intervention.

CLINICAL SETTING

Two dental access centres in the North West of England.

PARTICIPANTS

Initially, 583 patients were screened. Of these, 182 (31%) were found to be dentally anxious and were recruited into the study.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

State-Trait Anxiety Inventory Scale Short Form.

RESULTS

State anxiety did not change with the completion of the MDAS questionnaire in either designated dental phobics (MDAS >or=19) or those classified as non-phobics (MDAS <19).

CONCLUSIONS

The MDAS can be used to assess dental anxiety without raising anxiety in patients with or without self-reported dental phobia.