Factors Affecting Dental Attendance following Treatment for Dental Anxiety in Primary Dental Care

Aim To explore factors affecting patients’ dental attendance behaviour following referral from a dental anxiety clinic to a general dental practitioner. Design A four-year follow up of patients who completed a course of treatment for dental anxiety by conducting semi-structured interviews, face-to-face or by telephone, with confirmation of dental attendance from the dental records. Subjects Forty-one patients who had completed a course of treatment for dental anxiety, in a specially designed community clinic. Mean time since last dental visit before treatment was 7.8 years (range 0.5–29). Results Twenty-three patients were successfully followed up and 11 (47%) were receiving regular asymptomatic dental care. The dental anxiety scores of those who subsequently became asymptomatic attenders were significantly lower at follow-up than the patients who became symptomatic attenders (P=0.01). Effective dentist-patient communication was a common theme of the interviews. Conclusions At four-year follow-up, dental anxiety was substantially lower in those who subsequently became asymptomatic attenders than those who became symptomatic attenders. A positive dentist-patient relationship had developed with the asymptomatic attenders.