Dental anxiety and salivary cortisol levels before urgent dental care

Abstract

Dental anxiety is still prevalent, despite advances in treatment, and affects the utilization of health care services. The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to determine if patients with different degrees of dental anxiety and pain undergoing emergency dental care have different stress reactions as measured by salivary cortisol. Seventy three patients completed the modified dental anxiety scale (MDAS), and described any previous dental traumatic experience. Their socio-demographic characteristics were also recorded. They also rated pain intensity on a 100 mm visual analogue scale (VAS). A saliva sample was collected before the procedure, and analyzed by enzyme immunoassay. Thirty patients were dentally anxious and forty one complained of pain. In this sample, dental anxiety was not related to gender, age, educational level and family income; however, a previous traumatic event was related to dental anxiety. There was no association between salivary cortisol concentrations and gender or dental anxiety. Patients with pain showed higher cortisol levels. When gathering patient information, the dentist should note patients' negative dental experiences in order to provide more effective, less traumatic treatment. (J Oral Sci 51, 515-520, 2009)

Salivary Cortisol, Salivary Alpha Amylase, and the Dental Anxiety Scale

“…Stress and sAA associations have been well documented and studied in the literature [24][25][26][27][28] ; however, to our knowledge, no literature exists on the correlation between dental anxiety and sAA. Therefore, the aim of this study was to see if there is any correlation between dental anxiety, sAA, and salivary cortisol levels.…”

The Relationship between Dental Anxiety Level and Patients’ Knowledge of the Procedure

“…In a disagreement with our result K.Kanegane etal. stated that there was a tendency for negative association between salivary cortisol and MDAS score [33]. That might be due to different saliva collection method, they asked their subjects to hold a soft cotton roll in the mouth until it was saturated with saliva then it was transferred to aplastic tube.…”

Salivary Cortisol Measurement as a Test for Dental Anxiety Before Tooth Extraction

“…Kanegane et al [19] studied salivary cortisol levels in 76 adult patients and dental anxiety by CDAS and expected pain intensity by VAS before dental treatment. They received expected intensity of pain in men at 2.9 ± 3.4 points, and in women 4.18 ± 3.8 points.…”

“…The cortisol level was determined before conservative treatment in adults and children, as well as in patients during periodontal treatment [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20].…”