The Prevalence And Effects Of Dental Anxiety In Patients With A Documented History Of Cardiovascular Disease Before Tooth Extraction

Dental anxiety ,also called dental fear, means people show strains, tensions and even fear when seeking dental therapy. It can delay, avoid and even spoil necessary dental care, which not only do harm to patients' dental health, but also deteriorate dental-patient relationship. Dental anxiety has been an important problem that hampers dental care service in common people of many countries, Therefore, it is worthy of research to determine the prevalence of dental anxiety, and to lay foundation for therapy of dental anxiety. Presently, dental anxiety has been searched rather profoundly abroad and domestically. But the prevalence of dental anxiety in patients with a documented history of cardiovascular disease before tooth extraction and its effect on cardiovascular system during theprocedure have seldom been reported to date.In this study, the prevalence of dental anxiety in 144 dental patients with a documented history of cardiovascular disease before tooth extraction was determined by questionnaires investigation. They were asked to complete a questionnaire modified from Corah Dental Anxiety Scale(DAS) while awaiting tooth extraction, and 138 of which were monitored including HR and BP during the procedure in difference times(before, during and after local injection, during dental extraction and postextraction ).The main results are as follows:First, The incidence of DA in these patients reached 7.6%. Anxiety level about anesthesia procedure was the highest. DAS score was significantly higher in such patients as: inactive perception, female, below to 60 years old, painful tooth experience, a documented history of single cardiovascular disease, under ECG monitoring for the first time, complicated tooth extraction. A step regression analysis showed that the first two factors had significant differences. (P=.000)Second, the correlation between DAS scores and change of HR was not significant(r=-0.023, P=0.790), and that between DAS score and change of BP was significant(SBP: r=0.217, P=0.011; DBP: r=0.177, P=0.037).;the correlation between DAS score and RPP( MOC ) was positive significant ( P=0.000 ) .In conclusion, the prevalence of dental anxiety in patients with a documented history of cardiovascular disease before tooth extraction is extensive, and many factors are closely related to patients' anxiety level, which increases BP, MOC significantly. It is necessary for medical personnel to take measures to provide patients psychotherapy and nursing guidance before tooth extraction alleviating their anxiety level and reducing the occurrence of dental anxiety, so that their BP and MOC would not rise obviously during tooth extraction to ensure safe treatment.