Do Dental Anxiety Questionnaires Raise Anxiety in Dentally Anxious Adult Patients? A Two-Wave Panel Study

Abstract

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 ≥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.