Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy I, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.
BMC Psychol. 2021 Nov 24;9(1):184. doi: 10.1186/s40359-021-00684-6.
Dental anxiety is of public health importance because it leads to postponed dental treatment, which comes with health complications. The present study investigated whether there is a correlation between the degree of dental anxiety and other kinds of anxiety and whether there are prognostic factors for the different kinds of anxiety.
In the sample (N = 156) from a dental practice in a large German city, 62% of patients received a check-examination and 38% received dental surgery. The target variables were recorded with validated questionnaires: dental anxiety (IDAF-4c+), subclinical anxiety (SubA), anxiety of negative evaluation (SANB-5), current general anxiety (STAI state), loneliness (LS-S) and self-efficacy (GSW-6). The applied statistics were: t-tests for 31 variables, correlation matrix and multivariate and bivariate regression analyses.
The dental surgery patients displayed more dental anxiety and more dental interventions than the check-examination group. The main result was a positive correlation of all kinds of anxiety with each other, a positive correlation of loneliness and neuroticism with all forms of anxiety and a negative correlation between all forms of anxiety and self-efficacy. Especially dental anxiety is positively associated with other kinds of anxiety. In multivariate regression models only neuroticism is associated with dental anxiety, but feelings of loneliness are positively associated with with the other kinds of anxiety assessed in this study. The higher the self-efficacy, the lower the level of general anxiety.
In dentistry, anxiety from negative experiences with buccal interventions should be distinguished from anxiety caused by personality traits. Self-efficacy tends to protect against anxiety, while loneliness and neuroticism are direct or indirect risk factors for anxiety in this urban dentistry sample. Dental anxiety seems to be independent from biographical strains but not from neuroticism. In practice, more attention must be paid to anxiety control, self-management and efforts to improve the confidence of patients with emotional lability, less self-confidence and propensity to shame.
由于牙科焦虑症会导致患者推迟接受治疗，从而带来健康并发症，因此具有公共卫生重要性。本研究旨在调查牙科焦虑症与其他焦虑症之间是否存在相关性，以及是否存在不同焦虑症的预后因素。
在德国一个大城市的牙科诊所中，样本量为 156 人，其中 62%的患者接受了检查，38%的患者接受了牙科手术。使用经过验证的问卷记录目标变量：牙科焦虑症（IDAF-4c+）、亚临床焦虑症（SubA）、负面评价焦虑症（SANB-5）、当前一般焦虑症（STAI 状态）、孤独感（LS-S）和自我效能感（GSW-6）。应用的统计方法包括：31 个变量的 t 检验、相关矩阵以及多元和双变量回归分析。
与检查组相比，接受牙科手术的患者表现出更多的牙科焦虑症和更多的牙科干预。主要结果是各种焦虑症之间呈正相关，孤独感和神经质与各种焦虑症呈正相关，而各种焦虑症与自我效能感呈负相关。特别是牙科焦虑症与其他焦虑症呈正相关。在多元回归模型中，只有神经质与牙科焦虑症相关，而孤独感与本研究评估的其他类型焦虑症呈正相关。自我效能感越高，一般焦虑症水平越低。
在牙科领域，应将因口腔干预的负面经历而产生的焦虑与因个性特征而产生的焦虑区分开来。自我效能感有助于预防焦虑，而孤独感和神经质是本城市牙科样本中焦虑的直接或间接危险因素。牙科焦虑症似乎独立于生物应激因素，但与神经质无关。在实践中，必须更加关注焦虑控制、自我管理，并努力提高情绪不稳定、自信心不足和易羞愧的患者的信心。
