Dentists' management of patients' fear and anxiety.

Dentists participating in a health screening at the 1983 ADA annual session were asked to complete a brief questionnaire concerning their attitudes and methods of managing anxious patients. Most dentists see patient fear as an extremely important dimension of their practice and believe it to be the most important impediment to patient satisfaction. Behavioral methods such as "talking" appear to be the most frequently used methods of dealing with fearful patients. Finally, most dentists appear to learn their behavioral management methods through informal means.