Psychological disorder, conditioning experiences and the onset of dental anxiety in early adulthood

Most studies examining the origins of dental fear and anxiety have relied o n cross-sectional data. These are subject to several problems, such as reca ll and uncertainty concerning temporal relationships. This paper uses longi tudinal data from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Stud y to assess risk factors for the development of dental anxiety in persons b etween the ages of 18 and 26 years. It was hypothesized that psychological factors would be as important as conditioning experiences in the genesis of dental anxiety over this period. The eight-year incidence of dental anxiet y was 16.5%. Five variables entered models predicting onset: multiple fears , symptoms of substance dependence, previous experience of invasive dental treatment, dental visiting pattern, and the extraction of one or more teeth . Separate analyses for those avoiding and those using dental services resu lted in different explanatory models. These results indicated that both psy chological and conditioning variables contributed to the development of den tal anxiety in this population of young adults.