Changes in levels of dental anxiety as a function of dental experience

From the literature, it is increasingly apparent that dentally anxious indi viduals are not a homogeneous group and that the development and maintenanc e of dental anxiety are complex phenomena. In this study, individuals who h ad avoided dental treatment in the past due to fear but were no longer fear ful were compared with others who had avoided and were still fearful on a n umber of demographic, experiential, and attitudinal variables under the ass umption that avoidance is likely to prevent the emotional processing of den tal anxiety. The groups differed markedly in their experience of dentistry; anxious avoiders were more likely to have experienced more invasive and le ss noninvasive dental treatment; they feared pain more and were more negati ve about dentistry than those whose anxiety had remitted. In addition, the remitted avoiders were less likely to claim frightening or embarrassing den tal experiences as well as being less reactive to these experiences than th e others.