Do dental anxiety questionnaires raise anxiety in dentally anxious adult patients? A two wave panel study

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