DOCTORAL THESIS. In Sweden, approximately one in five adults suffers from dental anxiety or phobia. The number has decreased over time, but many still have major problems, according to a recent University of Gothenburg doctoral thesis.
The thesis includes a nationwide interview study involving 3,500 adult individuals, randomly selected from the general population of Sweden. Nineteen percent reported some degree of dental anxiety, fear or phobia (also known as dentophobia or odontophobia).
The interviewees’ self-reported results were as follows: 4.7% described their dental anxiety as severe, 4.5% as moderate and 9.8% as low. The remaining 80.9% said they had no dental anxiety at all. The proportion with no anxiety was more than twice as high as in a similar study from the 1960s, when 38.5% of respondents said they had no dental anxiety.
“There’s been a marked change: people aren’t nearly as scared of dentistry anymore,” says Lisa Svensson, who has a doctorate in Odontological Science, Dental Psychology and Public Health, at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, and is a dentist in Sweden’s Public Dental Service, Region Västra Götaland.
Public health problems
Svensson stresses that preventive dentistry for children and adolescents has been a crucial factor. It has created habits, improved dental health, and thus reduced the need for extensive dental procedures early in life. Better communication and a more equal relationship between dentist and patient have also helped.
On the other hand, dental phobia is so common that it is still a public health issue, Svensson emphasizes. Her doctoral studies focused particularly on individuals with severe dental anxiety. Of these, 85% said their daily life was affected by mouth or tooth problems, and 78% reported intense pain in the same area.
“The most highly anxious people often have negative experience of dental care, with a lot of pain involved. But the feeling of vulnerability can also be due to previous experience of assault involving the face and mouth, or sexual abuse,” Svensson says.
Marked comorbidity
“There’s a high degree of comorbidity in this group,” she states. “People with severe dental anxiety are often prone to anxiety, suffer from depression or some other mental disorder, and also have a phobia of something else.”
Dentists and other dental staff meet and treat patients with severe dental anxiety every day. Even people with a severe phobia of dental care most often choose to go to the dentist, despite their fear.
“Among the interviewees, pain and not being in control were the most common causes of dental anxiety. For a dentist, these factors are relatively easy to manage. And if we do, we’re engaging in both preventive dentistry and treatment of severe dental anxiety,” Svensson says.
Title: Dental Anxiety: Prevalence, measurements and consequences, http://hdl.handle.net/2077/65134
BY: MARGARETA GUSTAVSSON KUBISTA
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