A survey of university students in South Australia. Part 3. Attitudes to dental treatment

Influence of repression upon the measurement of dental anxiety

Using a non-linear, multivariate analysis, the resistance against admitting to being dentally anxious was studied. Dental anxiety was found to be repressed by a subgroup, among them more men than women, of a sample, who also repressed the feeling of low self esteem about tooth loss. Based on the results, regular and irregular dental attenders can be separated almost perfectly. The relationship with other anxiety measurements, i.e. Corah's Dental Anxiety Scale and three components discernible in Weiner's Anticipation Anxiety Level Chart, was studied.

Sociodemographic correlates of dental anxiety

In a survey comprising 620 30-40-yr-old inhabitants of a Dutch town, dental anxiety was measured along with some sociodemographic variables. The data were analyzed in an attempt to reveal associations between sociodemographically determined groups of respondents and their scores on the different measurements of dental anxiety. Women reported higher dental anxiety levels than men, with the exception of body damage anticipation anxiety. The rank order of birth seemed to have no influence. Divorced men and women reported a higher anxiety level on two of the anxiety measurements, but the association appeared to be weak. A lower level of education, irregular dental attendance, and edentulousness appeared to be associated with a higher level of dental anxiety.

Use of services, care-seeking behavior and satisfaction among university dental clinic patients in Finland

This paper analyzes use of services, behavioral features and their intercorrelations among a random sample of 94 patients visiting University of Connecticut dental clinics. The data were collected in interviews and patient records. In care seeking the greatest percentage (34%) of respondents relied on the advice of friends, relatives or neighbors. This finding confirms the importance of the lay referring system. The influence of regular source of care was apparent when patients' frequency of visits in clinics exceeded considerably their visit frequency in the past. Even earlier irregular visitors made many visits during the past 12 months. The following dimensions of satisfaction were measured: difficulty in getting an appointment, general satisfaction with care, costs of care in general, convenience in treatment and satisfaction with oral health. The results show that opinions toward care and about dental health were dominantly positive ranging from 60 to 94% of all the answers. Costs were regarded as high by 54% of the subjects. There was a positive and significant correlation between degree of utilization and satisfaction with care. The correlation between satisfaction with oral health and number of teeth was non-significant. There were several cumulative correlations, which suggests that one health related feature may predict a similar tendency in other health behaviors.

Patients' perception of dentists' positive and negative attributes

Earlier studies have shown that dental patients concern themselves with the personality characteristics of their dentists as well as with their professional competence. The present study is part of a wider survey which compared the characteristics of regular and irregular or non-attenders for dental check-ups. In this article patients' characteristics such as sex, age, level of dental anxiety and certain previous dental experiences were related to their perceptions of dentists' positive and negative attributes. The results confirmed previous findings that dentists were seen generally by their patients in a favourable light. Respondents who admitted to higher levels of dental anxiety were more likely to choose more negative attributes and less positive ones than respondents who admitted to lower levels; women, younger subjects and the dentally anxious consistently chose unsympathetic and indifferent as the two top negative characteristics of their dentists.