Anxiety Among Adult Patients Seeking Sedation for Dental Care

Objectives: To describe the level of dental anxiety and demographic characteristics of patients seeking care at a tertiary centre delivering sedation services, and to compare this group to patients receiving care at a specialist restorative clinic

Methods: Descriptive cross-sectional survey of 150 patients (100 sedation, 50 restorative). Measures included the Dental Fear Survey, A measure of fear of injections, demographic variables.

Results:Significant differences were found between the two groups for DFS scores (Mean Sedation 69.8; Mean Restorative 35.1) and the Fear of Needles scale (Mean score 16.6 for the sedation clinic and 9.6 restorative clinic patients). Patients in the sedation clinic were more likely to rate their oral health as ‘Poor' and to be irregular attenders at dental clinics. Patients attending for sedation were more likely to use tobacco and alcohol. The most prevalent fears for the sedation group related to seeing, hearing and feeling the drill (approximately 75% reported that they feared these items much or very much)

Conclusions: Patients attending for sedation show high levels of general fear of dentistry, and are most fearful of the dental drill.