Method: Children and adolescents (7-19 years old) who had obtained CBT (due to dental anxiety) in pediatric dentistry were included in the study. Telephone interviews with 12 patients and one of their parents each were conducted. A semi-structured interview guide was used. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. Thematic analysis was used as a tool in approaching the text material.
Result: Nine core categories emerged from the primary analysis of the text material. They were: origin of the fear, anticipatory anxiety, expectations from CBT, feeling secure, importance of individualized treatment (time and pace, autonomy and control), psychological tools (cognitive and behavioral), exposure, coping and self-efficacy. All the patients and their parents in the study reported increased ability to manage dental procedure as well as reduced fear and anxiety experienced by the children.
Conclusion: Children and adolescents with high degree of dental anxiety were able to understand and utilize the principal features of CBT. Children experienced reduced degree of fear and increased self-efficacy thanks to CBT. These results were confirmed by the parents. Children and adolescents with dental fear have limited access to evidence based psychological methods such as CBT. Considering the results of our study, this ought to be changed. However, in order to verify our results, a randomized controlled trial of CBT in dentistry will be carried out by our research team.