Abstract
Aim: To explore factors affecting patients' dental attendance behaviour following referral from a dental anxiety clinic to a general dental practitioner.
Design: A four-year follow up of patients who completed a course of treatment for dental anxiety by conducting semi-structured interviews, face-to-face or by telephone, with confirmation of dental attendance from the dental records.
Subjects: Forty-one patients who had completed a course of treatment for dental anxiety, in a specially designed community clinic. Mean time since last dental visit before treatment was 7.8 years (range 0.5-29).
Results: Twenty-three patients were successfully followed up and 11 (47%) were receiving regular asymptomatic dental care. The dental anxiety scores of those who subsequently became asymptomatic attenders were significantly lower at follow-up than the patients who became symptomatic attenders (P=0.01). Effective dentist-patient communication was a common theme of the interviews.
Conclusions: At four-year follow-up, dental anxiety was substantially lower in those who subsequently became asymptomatic attenders than those who became symptomatic attenders. A positive dentist-patient relationship had developed with the asymptomatic attenders.
Design: A four-year follow up of patients who completed a course of treatment for dental anxiety by conducting semi-structured interviews, face-to-face or by telephone, with confirmation of dental attendance from the dental records.
Subjects: Forty-one patients who had completed a course of treatment for dental anxiety, in a specially designed community clinic. Mean time since last dental visit before treatment was 7.8 years (range 0.5-29).
Results: Twenty-three patients were successfully followed up and 11 (47%) were receiving regular asymptomatic dental care. The dental anxiety scores of those who subsequently became asymptomatic attenders were significantly lower at follow-up than the patients who became symptomatic attenders (P=0.01). Effective dentist-patient communication was a common theme of the interviews.
Conclusions: At four-year follow-up, dental anxiety was substantially lower in those who subsequently became asymptomatic attenders than those who became symptomatic attenders. A positive dentist-patient relationship had developed with the asymptomatic attenders.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 51-56 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Primary Dental Care |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Apr 2001 |