Dentists' technical competence, communication, and personality as predictors of dental patient anxiety.

Previous research has found that many factors influence patients' dental anxiety, many of which are related to the practitioner's technical and interpersonal skill. Unfortunately, a confirmatory factor analysis of scales used in dental anxiety research revealed numerous problems with the measurement devices. The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) split into two subscales: calmness and anxiety. The Corah Dental Anxiety Scale (CDAS) was unidimensional but was unable to detect relationships between anxiety and interpersonal or communication factors. Interestingly, patient satisfaction, dentist behavior, and empathy items did not load on independent scales, as previously reported in the literature. Instead, five clusters were detected: positive and negative communication, positive and negative interpersonalness, and perceived technical competence.