02-05

Lynne C. Hunt, RDH, BS
University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill

Abstract

Purpose: Dental Anxiety affects a significant proportion of the population and can lead to avoidance of dental care and resulting loss of optimal oral health and has been extensively studied. Recent research suggests that anxiety towards dental hygiene treatment is also prevalent within the population. Relaxation training has been shown to reduce anxiety and pain perception during dental treatment. The purpose of this exploratory study is to examine the effects of guided relaxation training on dental anxiety and pain perception during a dental prophylaxis.

Methods: A convenience sample of 20 healthy adults will be recruited by posted flyers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an advertisement in an area newspaper and then screened for moderate to severe dental anxiety (minimum score of 13 out of 20 on the Corah Dental Anxiety Scale). Subjects will be stratified by gender and randomly assigned to the experimental group (guided relaxation training) and the control group (standard treatment). All subjects will receive quadrant scalings (Parallel design) divided up among three visits, with the experimental group receiving the relaxation training at the second visit. Physiological measures will be recorded twice at each visit and subjects will complete both state and trait psychological questionnaires.

Data Analysis: The data collected on this project represents hierarchical linear model with three levels (subject, visit, ~nd time within visit). Since the outcomes (state anxiety and POMS subscales) can be presumed to be quantitative with an underlying continuity, ProcMixed on SASR will be used to develop a random effects (multi-level) generalized linear model that accounts for the correlation structure (within subject) of the subject, visit and time within visit variables.