The use of dental anxiety questionnaires a survey of a group of UK dental practitioners

Aim To determine the frequency of use of dental anxiety assessment question naires and factors associated with their use in a group of UK dental practi tioners. Method A postal questionnaire to all 328 dentists whose names appear in the British Society for Behavioral Sciences in Dentistry Directory. informatio n collected for each practitioner included gender, year of qualification, t ype of practice in which anxious dental patients were treated, treatment us ed to manage anxious dental patients, type and frequency of use of dental a nxiety assessment indices. Results Questionnaires were returned from 275 (84%) practitioners. 269 were analyzed. Only 54 practitioners (20%) used adult dental anxiety assessment questionnaires and only 46 (17%) used child dental anxiety assessment ques tionnaires. Male practitioners were more likely to report questionnaire use in comparison with females (P <0.05), when treating dentally anxious adult s (26% v 14%). in addition, practitioners providing intravenous sedation we re more likely to use an adult dental anxiety questionnaire (P <0.04) than those who did not use intravenous sedation (29% v 15%). The type of treatme nt provided had a significant association with the use of child dental anxi ety. Those providing general anaesthesia (P = 0.03) and hypnosis (P = 0.01) for dentally anxious children were more inclined to use a questionnaire. Conclusion The use of pre-treatment dental anxiety assessment questionnaire s was low in this group of dentists. Male practitioners and those providing intravenous sedation, general anaesthesia or hypnosis seem more likely to use dental anxiety assessment questionnaires.