Science Writer CareQuest Institute for Oral Health
Participants should be aware of the following financial/non-financial relationships: . Lisa J. Heaton, PhD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Brian G. Leroux, PhD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.. Douglas S. Ramsay, DMD, PhD, MSD: I do not have any relevant financial / non-financial relationships with any proprietary interests.
Abstract: Objective: Interpretational bias is the tendency for individuals with anxiety to interpret anxiety-relevant ambiguous situations in a negative way. The goal of this study was to examine how dentally anxious individuals interpret ambiguous dental scenarios compared to those with lower dental anxiety. Methods: United States adults were recruited through national Craigslist advertisements to provide qualitative explanations of ambiguous dental scenarios and complete the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale (MDAS). We examined descriptions of 5 interpersonal scenarios between those high in dental anxiety (MDAS>19) compared to the rest of the sample and calculated the number of various emotionally valanced terms as a ratio of each group’s total number of words. Results: Participants (N=402; mean age=40.0 (sd=14.4), range 18-85; 65.2% female) completed the survey. The mean MDAS score was 16.6 (sd=5.6, range=5-25); 42.5% reported high dental anxiety. Dentally anxious respondents used fewer words (2711) across fewer (148) interpretative statements compared to the rest of the sample (3693 words across 170 interpretations). As a proportion of the total number of words, dentally anxious participants used terms like “nervous”, “anxious”, “worried”, and “scared” more often (range=0.26-0.66%) than other respondents (range=0.05-0.38%). Less anxious respondents, meanwhile, used the terms “money” (0.14%) and “cost” (0.35%) more often than dentally anxious individuals (0.07% and 0.18%, respectively). Conclusions: Dentally anxious respondents used words related to anxiety as a greater proportion of their overall words, while less anxious individuals more often described concerns about the cost of treatment. Dentists should tailor their communication to each patient’s specific sources of concern.
Source of Funding: This research was funded by the Dr. Douglass L. Morell Dentistry Research Fund at the University of Washington School of Dentistry.
