Abstract
Is is well known that most patients at dental clinics feel fear or anxiety about dental treatment. This emotional response might be due to the stress caused by pain experienced during previous dental treatment.
In this study, we investigated the relationship between pain during dental examination and psychological inventories. Seventy-four dental students and clinical residents were employed for this study. All subjects were healthy and had no severe dental disease. Periodontal probing and electronic pulp testing were applied to the subjects as the stimulation, and the pain induced by the stimulation was evaluated using the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS). The anxiety of each subject was assessed by the State Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), Manifest Anxiety Scale (MAS) and Cornell Medical Index (CMI). The relationship between pain as expressed by the VAS score and anxiety as assessed by the inventories was analyzed.
A positive correlation was found between the VAS score and inventory scores. The STAI state anxiety and the VAS score showed a highly linear correlation. Trait anxiety showed a relatively low correlation with the VAS score, compared to state anxiety. The MAS and CMI high anxiety group had a higher VAS score, indicating amplification of the pain by anxiety.
The pain during the dental examination as evaluated by the VAS score was substantial. Anxiety appears to have the potential to amplify even the pain of routine dental examinations. Care should therefore be taken when treating patients with high anxiety to avoid complications or accidents. Psychological inventories may be useful for screening patients who are highly sensitive to stress during dental treatment.
