<p>The recent study examined anxiety levels of 1,037 participants aged 15 to 32 in the long-running Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. About a quarter of the group were identified as dentally anxious. <br />Split into three groups, they had always been dentally anxious (stable anxious); or had developed dental anxiety later as adolescents (adolescent-onset anxious), or as adults (adult-onset anxious). <br />Those in the stable anxious group had more tooth decay at age five and early experience with dentists.<br />The adult-onset group was more likely to have lost teeth between the ages of 26 and 32, while the adolescent-onset anxious group had experienced more tooth decay from the age of 15. <br />Those with dental anxiety were more than just people who visit the dentist with a feeling of trepidation as the dentist looms over them with a drill in hand.<br />They were so frightened at the prospect of visiting a dentist or having dental procedures that they would avoid the dentist altogether - until the problem became so serious that treatment could no longer be avoided. <br />Researchers, lead by Murray Thomson, professor of dental sciences at Otago University, probed deeper into the characteristics of these anxious groups.<br />"Usually, these people become more and more anxious through a vicious cycle of avoiding the dentist to the point where their dental condition becomes much worse," Thomson says. <br />"They then require more unpleasant treatment options such as lancing an abscess, root canal treatment or a tooth extraction; and this reinforces their dental anxiety and makes it even less likely that they will visit the dentist next time they have a problem." <br />As a consequence, people who are dentally anxious end up with more tooth decay and more missing teeth than those who are not. <br />These findings were published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.<br /></p>
<p>The recent study examined anxiety levels of 1,037 participants aged 15 to 32 in the long-running Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study. About a quarter of the group were identified as dentally anxious. <br />Split into three groups, they had always been dentally anxious (stable anxious); or had developed dental anxiety later as adolescents (adolescent-onset anxious), or as adults (adult-onset anxious). <br />Those in the stable anxious group had more tooth decay at age five and early experience with dentists.<br />The adult-onset group was more likely to have lost teeth between the ages of 26 and 32, while the adolescent-onset anxious group had experienced more tooth decay from the age of 15. <br />Those with dental anxiety were more than just people who visit the dentist with a feeling of trepidation as the dentist looms over them with a drill in hand.<br />They were so frightened at the prospect of visiting a dentist or having dental procedures that they would avoid the dentist altogether - until the problem became so serious that treatment could no longer be avoided. <br />Researchers, lead by Murray Thomson, professor of dental sciences at Otago University, probed deeper into the characteristics of these anxious groups.<br />"Usually, these people become more and more anxious through a vicious cycle of avoiding the dentist to the point where their dental condition becomes much worse," Thomson says. <br />"They then require more unpleasant treatment options such as lancing an abscess, root canal treatment or a tooth extraction; and this reinforces their dental anxiety and makes it even less likely that they will visit the dentist next time they have a problem." <br />As a consequence, people who are dentally anxious end up with more tooth decay and more missing teeth than those who are not. <br />These findings were published in Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology.<br /></p>