Personality characteristics versus medical and dental experiences of dentally anxious children.

There is some conflicting evidence in the literature regarding whether dental phobia is a circumscribed fear or an instance of general fearfulness. In an attempt to tease out the effect of general fearfulness from that of aversive dental experiences, mothers of a group of 12 year-old children of both sexes were interviewed regarding their child's temperament and early dental and medical experiences. The results indicated that previous aversive dental experiences were more closely related to dental anxiety than was general fearfulness. Dentally anxious boys appeared to have been influenced by external factors, while the dentally anxious girls' influences appeared to be internal ones. Finally, early behavioral signs of distress in the operatory were predictive of later dental anxiety.