Does completing a dental anxiety questionnaire increase anxiety? A randomised controlled trial with adults in general dental practice

Key Points The completion of a short dental anxiety questionnaire by adult patients immediately before seeing their general dental practitioner does not raise anxiety. Contrary to some expectations the answering of questions about dental anxiety does not have a deleterious effect on patients. Dentists are recommended to use dental anxiety questionnaires routinely as part of their general assessment of patients. The assessment of dental anxiety can be achieved by using brief multi-item scales. Objective To test the null hypothesis that completing the Modified Dental Anxiety Scale had no immediate influence on patient state anxiety. Outcome measure Speilberger State Anxiety Inventory-6 item Short Form. Study design Randomised controlled trial. Participants Patients (n = 1,028) attending 18 dental practices in Northern Ireland were invited to participate. Results Twenty-four patients refused (response rate 98%) providing 1,004 patients (mean age = 41 years, range = 16 to 90 years; 65% female) for analysis. Patients who completed the dental anxiety scale were found to have a virtually identical state anxiety score: mean (SD) = 11.36 (4.33) compared to those who completed the state anxiety assessment only: mean (SD) = 11.01 (4.35). The mean (CI95%) difference was 0.35 (0.89 to -0.18), t = 1.29, df1002, p = 0.2. Conclusion The completion of a brief dental anxiety questionnaire before seeing the dentist has a non significant effect on state anxiety.