Anxiety Assessment Flashcards
What is a phobia?
intense, unreasonable fear
What is anxiety?
sense of uneasiness
exaggerated or unfounded worries or fears
What are the causes of anxiety ?
- pain
- feeling helpness and loss of control
- embarrassment
- negative past experiences
What are the signs of anxiety?
- low pain threshold
- stress related illnesses
- never see a dentist
- muscle stiffness- white knuckle syndrome
What are some symptoms of anxiety?
- trouble sleeping the night before a dental exam
- increasingly nervous in the waiting room
- crying even thinking about going to see the dentist/ at sight of dental instruments or white coat personnel
- thought of dental visit makes them physically ill
- panic or have trouble breatjing when objects are placed in the mouth during a dental appointment
What are the management options for anxiety?
behavioural management
pharmacological management
What are the possible approaches for managing low levels of anxiety?
rapport building
voice control
distraction
modelling
memory reconstruction
environmental change
What are the possible approaches for moderate levels of anxiety?
as for low levels Plus
Provision of prepatory information
What is a possible approach for high levels of anxiety where urgent treatment is not needed?
Cognitive behaviour therapy
What is a possible approach for patients with high level of anxiety requiring urgent treatment?
- Relative analgesia (inhalation sedation?)
- conscious sedation
- general anaesthesia
