Dental Fear: Pain Sensitivity and Fear of Bodily Injury

Objectives: High dental fear has been linked, in part, to fear of pain and bodily injury. We explored the extent to which dental fear is associated with sensitivity to pain, compared to fear of anticipated pain in normal college students. Methods: Items describing relatively common painful situations (e.g. burning your fingers, having a muscle cramp, etc.) were rated for painfulness. Items describing painful situations less likely to have been experienced (e.g., being in a car accident, breaking one's neck), were rated in terms of how much the participant "dreaded experiencing the pain" associated with event. Results: Not surprisingly, actual pain sensitivity reports were highly correlated with reports of fear of anticipated pain (r=.56, p<.001; n=200), with participants who reported experiencing more intense pain to common events also having higher fear of pain ratings. More interestingly, a multiple regression analysis indicated that fear of pain ratings accounted for significant variance in predicting dental fear, whereas sensitivity to pain did not. In a second study (n=1924), the profile of dental fear was investigated. Items related to a number of different common fears (e.g., snakes, social situations, bodily injury, etc.) were rated for degree of fearfulness. Overall, dental fear was fairly specific: Of those reporting a single fear, the largest proportion reported dental fear. Nonetheless, when a second fear was reliably reported for high dental fear participants, it was of bodily injury. Conclusions: Taken together, the data support the hypothesis that fear of pain and bodily injury are reliably associated with dental fear. supported by NIH DE13956