UNLABELLED The anxiety experienced by some patients before or during dental visits poses a problem for patients and the dental practitioners alike. Some people consider them a stressful experience which manifests itself as anxiety, fear and even phobia and results in avoidance of proper dental care. The dental anxiety, dental fear and dental phobia stand out against the background of general an...

9 Aim One in seven children or adolescents suffer from a high level of dental fear/anxiety (DFA) hindering or delaying their dental service attendance. To overcome this negative psychological condition an early diagnosis should be performed through validated psychometric scales adequate for children, such as the Children’s Fear Survey Schedule-Dental Subscale (CFSSDS) and the Modified Child Den...

Anecdotal evidence suggests lack of dentist knowledge and uncertainty about how clinical practice can be improved when dealing with victims of sexual violence. This systematic review presents a synthesis of the available literature, which examined the association between dental fear and a history of sexual violence victimisation. All studies indicated, to various degrees, that dental fear is as...

In this age of anxiety, pain control and sedation have become important aspects of dental care. It is now becoming more common for general practitioners to provide in-office sedation for routine dental procedures. A segment of the population that would otherwise not seek care because of fear or anxiety is now receiving treatment. The use of sedation for dental care has become a topic of intense...

BACKGROUND Few studies have investigated the relationships between HIV-related knowledge, fear of contagion in dental environments and Oral Impacts on Daily Performance (OIDP) among dental patients. Our objectives were to investigate the associations between HIV-related knowledge and fear of contagion in dental environments and OIDP among dental patients, and to evaluate whether those associati...

This article presents a child-centered philosophy for managing young dental patients. The goals of this approach are to reduce children’s dental fear to a minimum and to encourage a positive, accepting attitude toward regular dental care. Interventions which focus on the young child’s emotional needs in the dental setting are encouraged. The dentist uses techniques designed to help the child gr...