IADR Abstract Archives
The Ontology of Dental Fear and Anxiety
Objectives: Dental care-related fear, anxiety, and phobia (DFA) refer to negative emotional, behavioral, or physical responses that occur when a patient is considering or receiving dental treatment. We are developing the Ontology of Dental Fear and Anxiety (ODFA) to standardize terminology about dental fear, anxiety, and phobia and enable annotation and analyses of existing DFA data and future assessments of dental patients and providers regarding this important healthcare issue.
Methods: The ODFA is developed using parent classes from the Emotion Ontology, the Oral Health and Disease Ontology, Ontology for Biomedical Investigations, and the Behavior Change Intervention Ontology. We use published descriptions of fear, anxiety, and phobia constructs to develop dental-specific definitions based both on past attempts to apply these constructs to dental care and through direct input from dental providers.
Results: We have defined a number of core ODFA terms, including ‘dental fear’, defined as “Fear due to specific, identifiable threats in the dental care setting.” We have also defined subtypes of ‘dental fear’, including ‘fear of dental pain’, ‘fear of specific dental stimuli’, and ‘fear of negative dental exam finding’. We have also defined and created a hierarchy of subtypes for ‘dental anxiety’, including ‘dental anxiety due to conditioned fear of specific dental stimuli’, ‘dental anxiety due to catastrophic thinking about potential dental visit’, and ‘dental anxiety due to financial anxiety’. Furthermore, we have defined behavioral outcomes such as ‘dental visit avoidance behavior.’
Conclusions: The ODFA will allow us to analyze existing data about dental fear and anxiety, including datasets from CareQuest, the ADA, and the Black Women’s Health Study, as well as to better understand the etiology and implications of dental fear and anxiety. We are still refining our definitions of fear and anxiety to better elucidate the difference between the two terms in the context of dental care.
Methods: The ODFA is developed using parent classes from the Emotion Ontology, the Oral Health and Disease Ontology, Ontology for Biomedical Investigations, and the Behavior Change Intervention Ontology. We use published descriptions of fear, anxiety, and phobia constructs to develop dental-specific definitions based both on past attempts to apply these constructs to dental care and through direct input from dental providers.
Results: We have defined a number of core ODFA terms, including ‘dental fear’, defined as “Fear due to specific, identifiable threats in the dental care setting.” We have also defined subtypes of ‘dental fear’, including ‘fear of dental pain’, ‘fear of specific dental stimuli’, and ‘fear of negative dental exam finding’. We have also defined and created a hierarchy of subtypes for ‘dental anxiety’, including ‘dental anxiety due to conditioned fear of specific dental stimuli’, ‘dental anxiety due to catastrophic thinking about potential dental visit’, and ‘dental anxiety due to financial anxiety’. Furthermore, we have defined behavioral outcomes such as ‘dental visit avoidance behavior.’
Conclusions: The ODFA will allow us to analyze existing data about dental fear and anxiety, including datasets from CareQuest, the ADA, and the Black Women’s Health Study, as well as to better understand the etiology and implications of dental fear and anxiety. We are still refining our definitions of fear and anxiety to better elucidate the difference between the two terms in the context of dental care.