Dental Anxiety Flashcards
Name 2 ways a person may become anxious?
- Direct conditioning
2. Indirect conditioning
What are 3 ways a person may be directly conditioned to be anxious of going to the dentist?
- Dental personnel
- Dental environment
- Aspects of dental treatment
What are 3 ways a person may be indirectly conditioned to be anxious of going to the dentist?
- Vicarious information
2. Media / social media
Describe the cycle for onset of dental anxiety
- Fear / anxiety
- Avoidance of dental care
- Deterioration of dentition
- Feelings of guilt, shame and inferiority
Describe the cycle for maintenance of dental anxiety
- Avoidance
- Poor oral health
- Repeated painful events
- Negative cognitions around dental stimuli
What are 4 wider impacts of dental anxiety?
- Emotional problems
- Social anxiety
- Poor self-image
- Lower life satisfaction
What is the difference between fear, anxiety and phobia?
- Fear and anxiety are often interchangeable
- Phobia is avoidance behaviour
What is fear?
An individual’s emotional response to a perceived threat or danger
What is anxiety?
Responses to situations in which the source of threat to the individual is ill-defined, ambiguous or not immediately present
What is phobia?
Marked and persistent fear that is excessive or unreasonable, cued by the presence or anticipation of a specific object or situation
What is dental fear?
- An emotional response to dental procedures signifying danger
- Embodies physiological and behavioural cues and negative cognitive appraisal
What is dental anxiety?
Individual responds to dental procedures even when the threat is uncertain, vague or not immediately present
What is dental phobia?
A marked and persistent fear of dental procedures resulting in an immediate anxiety response when in the dental environment
What are 5 physiological cues of dental anxiety / fear / phobias?
- Dizziness
- Tremor / shaking
- Headache
- Perspiring excessively
- Increased heart rate
How does fear affect pain?
Lowers the pain threshold
What 5 things may cause a patient to mistrust their dentist?
- Hostile presentation
- Complaints about previous dentist
- Concern with competence of dentist
- Impersonal treatment
- Victimization
What 4 things may present as a catastrophe in the dental clinic to a patient?
- Fainting
- Allergy
- Misinterpretation of physical symptoms
- Reactions to anaesthetic
What is the goal of treatment planning?
Carry out the dental procedure
What are the 2 pathways leading to goals of treatment planning?
- Psychological
2. Pharmacological
What are 3 possible aims of relaxation?
- Preventive measure to protect the body organs involved in stress-related disease from unnecessary wear
- Treatment to help relieve stress in certain physical conditions
- Coping skill to calm the mind and allow thinking to become clearer and allow more easy access to positive information
What are 2 types of relaxation?
- Physical
2. Mental
What is physical relaxation?
Release of tension in muscles and lengthening of muscle fibres
What is mental relaxation?
Feeling relief of tension and strain
Name 3 control techniques
- Informational
- Behavioural
- Retrospective
Name 2 forms of behavioural therapy
- In vivo exposure
2. In vitro exposure
What is the difference between in vivo and in vitro exposure?
- In vivo exposure is grade an prolonged exposure to feared stimulus
- In vitro exposure is exposure in the imagination as access to feared stimuli is not available
Give 3 ways in which exposure therapy can be enhanced
- Exposure in vivo is more effective
- Prolonged exposure is better than brief exposure
- Frequently practiced exposure is more effective than long intervals between exposures
What are 3 possible coping strategies?
- Positive self-statements
- Distraction
- Cognitive restructuring
What are 3 influences on choice of treatment mode?
- Patient (knowledge / motivation)
- Dentist (knowledge / skill)
- Resources (cost / fees)
What may be 2 specific problems with dental anxiety?
- Needle / Blood phobia
2. Gagging
How may needle / blood phobia be tackled?
- Relaxation
- Exposure
- Applied tension for prevention
How may gagging be tackled?
- Muscle relaxation
- Systematic desensitization
