What is it about?
Dental anxiety is common and associated with poor oral health. We have shown efficient treatment for this condition can be delivered by a dentist in a general dental practice. Both dentist-administered cognitive behavioural therapy (D-CBT) and oral sedation with midazolam in conjunction with adequate communication techniques were associated with a significant decrease in dental anxiety.
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Why is it important?
Dental anxiety is a common and debilitating condition. Still, access to treatment is poor. If adequate treatment can be delivered by trained dentists, this could increase treatment availability dramatically. In this manner, patient suffering due to untreated oral diseases could be prevented.
Perspectives
Developing educational programs designed to teach dentists how to better manage dental anxiety should be a future priority. This has great potential in increasing access to treatment to the large number of patients struggling with fear of dental treatment. This could prevent oral diseases and ease patient suffering.
Mariann Saanum Hauge
University of Oslo
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Dentist‐administered cognitive behavioural therapy versus four habits/midazolam: An RCT study of dental anxiety treatment in primary dental care, European Journal Of Oral Sciences, May 2021, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/eos.12794.
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