Abstract

Background: Dental fear or dental anxiety is one of the most common fears in the society today. It may be treated effectively e.g. with cognitive-behavioural therapy or CBT.

Aim: The scope of this practise-based study was to investigate dental attendance of patients having received treatment for dental fear, based on CBT, in 10–15-year span following their fear treatment.

Materials and methods: Study participants had received treatment, mainly CBT, for dental fear by primary health care dentists interested and trained in the era, during 2000–2006 in the City of Oulu, Finland. The number of dental examinations, emergency visits and no shows were collected from the patient records if the City of Oulu; the organization or register keeper gave permission for this retrospective study. Data were analysed with IBM SPSS statistics processor.

Patient files of a total of 152 patients out of the original 163 were found with sufficient data, and comprised the study population. These data were quantified and cross-tabled with age, gender and perceived initial dental fear treatment success.

Results: Patients receiving dental fear treatment at the age of 2–10 years had significantly more dental examinations on average than those treated at later age. When treatment for a patient <10 years of age was initially considered successful, the number of emergency visits was significantly reduced. Gender did not seem to be a significant factor in later dental attendance.

Conclusions: Administering CBT at early age (2–10y) and successful outcome by CBT seem to be associated with more regular dental attendance and need for less emergency care than in the opposite case.