Dental fear in Australia: who's afraid of the dentist?

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to describe both the prevalence of dental fear in Australia and to explore the relationship between dental fear and a number of demographic, socio‐economic, oral health, insurance and service usage variables. Methods: A telephone interview survey of a random sample of 7312 Australian residents, aged five years and over, from all states and territories. Results: The prevalence of high dental fear in the entire sample was 16.1 per cent. A higher percentage of females than males reported high fear (HF). Adults aged 40–64 years old had the highest prevalence of high dental fear with those adults aged 80+ years old having the least. There were also differences between low fear (LF) and HF groups in relation to socio‐economic status (SES), with people from higher SES groups generally having less fear. People with HF were more likely to be dentate, have more missing teeth, be covered by dental insurance and have a longer time since their last visit to a dentist. Conclusions: This study found a high prevalence of dental fear within a contemporary Australian population with numerous differences between individuals with HF and LF in terms of socio‐economic, socio‐demographic and self‐reported oral health status characteristics.

Management of fear and anxiety in the dental clinic: a review

“…High dental fear affects approximately one in six Australian adults 1,2 and this prevalence figure is similar to that of many Western countries around the world. [3][4][5][6][7] Among some sub-groups of the population, such as middle-aged women, the prevalence of high dental fear may be as high as one in three individuals.…”

“…[3][4][5][6][7] Among some sub-groups of the population, such as middle-aged women, the prevalence of high dental fear may be as high as one in three individuals. 1 The impact that this relatively high level of dental fear in the community can have is appreciable. First, people with high dental fear are much more likely to delay or avoid dental visiting, 1,[8][9][10] and a number of fearful people regularly cancel or fail to show for appointments.…”

Does the trait anxiety affect the dental fear?

“…Armfield et al depicted that a patient's age correlated with anxiety and of the participants, adults aged between 40-64 years had the highest dental anxiety stage. 4 Age was one of the most significant modifiers in Pohjola et al 3 study indicating this interaction of both measurement scores. Fabián et al 22 similarly concluded their studies finding an association between dental and trait anxiety states.…”

“…fear differs from 10 to 20%. 3,4 People having high dental fear hold more untreated caries and extensive dental treatment need. 5 These patients also have the poorer oral health-related quality of life comparing to others having less dental fear.…”

Oral health-related quality of life improves in employees with disabilities following a workplace dental intervention

“…Nonetheless, dental fear remained a barrier to accessing dental services for some employees, as reported for other patients with special health care needs (Gordon, Dionne, & Snyder,1998). Even in the general population, high dental fear is reported to affect one in six Australian adults (Armfield, Spencer, & Stewart, 2006). Although employed, these employees would be on minimal wages.…”