Changes in levels of dental anxiety as a function of dental experience.

From the literature, it is increasingly apparent that dentally anxious individuals are not a homogeneous group and that the development and maintenance of dental anxiety are complex phenomena. In this study, individuals who had avoided dental treatment in the past due to fear but were no longer fearful were compared with others who had avoided and were still fearful on a number of demographic, experiential, and attitudinal variables under the assumption that avoidance is likely to prevent the emotional processing of dental anxiety. The groups differed markedly in their experience of dentistry; anxious avoiders were more likely to have experienced more invasive and less noninvasive dental treatment; they feared pain more and were more negative about dentistry than those whose anxiety had remitted. In addition, the remitted avoiders were less likely to claim frightening or embarrassing dental experiences as well as being less reactive to these experiences than the others.