Dental Providers' Perceptions of Dentally Fearful Patients

Objectives: Throughout the United States and around the world, patients with dental fear have significant barriers to achieving good dental health. Dentally fearful patients often do not visit the dentist and thus do not receive proper oral healthcare. Currently, there is limited research that focuses on dental providers’ perceptions of treating patients with dental fear. Therefore, the objective of this research was to determine how much training dental providers have in treating patients with dental fears and how satisfaction with training relates to providers' attitudes toward and perceptions of treating these patients.
Methods: The research involved a brief, eighteen-item survey, and was given to eligible participants (dentists, hygienists, assistants) attending the 2016 Pacific Northwest Dental Conference (N=199). The survey included questions to determine the amount of education providers received on treating dentally fearful patients, types of treatment management used primarily by providers (pharmacological vs. behavioral), and a Likert Scales to determine the amount of Satisfaction with Training and Attitudes providers have toward treating fearful patients.

Results: The results indicated no statistical significance between the amount of training and Attitude scores (r=0.086; P=0.227). There was a positive and significant correlation between the Satisfaction with Training scores and Attitude scores (r= 0.451; P<0.01). Dental assistants reported significantly higher (more positive) Attitude scores than dentists and hygienists (F=3.39; P<0.01). There was a positive correlation between Satisfaction with Training scores and both Pharmacological (r=0.158; P= 0.028) and Behavioral scores (r=0.145; P=0.043), such that participants who were more satisfied with their training in treating fearful patients reported more use of both pharmacological and behavioral management techniques.
Conclusions: Finding methods to increase dental providers’ satisfaction with training will help to improve the perceptions towards patients with dental fears and the treatment of these patients.