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- Title
Ratings of Fears Associated with Twelve Dental Situations.
- Authors
STOUTHARD, M. E. A.; HOOGSTRATEN, J.
- Abstract
Ratings of fear aroused by 12 dental situations were obtained by the method of paired comparisons. The dental situations concerned one of four categories: (a) preparations for the dental visit, (b) preparations for dental treatment, (c) comments by the dentist on oral state, and (d) actual dental treatment. The situations originated from Gale's ranking questionnaire. It was hypothesized that the amount of fear elicited would increase in the order a, b, c, and d. Results indicated that subjects were capable of ranking dental situations according to the amount of anxiety they aroused. Overall ratings show reasonably good agreement with the results of Gale's study. The hypothesis concerning the rank order of the situations was partly confirmed. Two situations deviated strongly from the expected order. The categories (c) and (d) were rated highest in the hierarchy of fear arousal, but their rank order couldn't be established. This finding suggests that dental fear contains a component of physical danger as well as a component of threat to a person's self-esteem.
- Subjects
FEAR of dentists; PAIRED comparisons (Mathematics); RANKING (Statistics); DENTAL care; HYPOTHESIS; DANGER perception
- Publication
Journal of Dental Research, 1987, Vol 66, Issue 6, p1175
- ISSN
0022-0345
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1177/00220345870660061601