The recording of dental anxiety in the emergency dental services: A quality improvement project

Dr GovindMalhiBDS MFDS RCS (Eng) SmileTogether, Cornwall

Introduction

Dental anxiety can be defined as experiencing stress anxiety or fear when associated with a dental setting. Experiencing these symptoms while at the dentist is not uncommon. According the Adult Dental Health Survey 2009 (ADHS), 11.6% of the adult population in the United Kingdom have dental anxiety/phobia (Heidari, Banerjee and Newton, 2015). There are many of causes of dental anxiety. Common causes include traumatic dental experiences and previous trauma to the head and neck area. However, some not-so-common causes can include a fear of not being in control and agoraphobia (fear of being in situations where you feel you cannot escape) (Dental anxiety and phobia -Better Health Channel, 2021).

A survey of patients in the Emergency Dental Service (EDS) in Cornwall came up with 3 common reasons for dental anxiety:

Pain

Fear of needles

Childhood trauma/fear being passed on from parents

Auditing the reporting of dental anxiety software to ascertain whether an explanation/history of their anxiety was recorded. The medical history used on the Dentally as to whether they suffer from dental anxiety. An explanation was classed as a specific reason or event that caused the patient to develop anxiety related to dentistry i.e. to being too vague.

The results are shown in the pie chart below.

Aim

Improve reporting of dental anxiety so appointments can be specifically tailored to address patients anxieties and result in better patient experiences within the service and in dentistry as a whole

PDSA Cycle

Add extra question to medical history tab on Dentally software asking patients to explain/elaborate on their anxieties

Plan Do Study Act

Question was added (Jan 2022)

Survey patients to see if addressing their specific anxieties allowed them to have better experiences in the service.

Re-audit reporting of anxiety and compare pie charts to see if reporting improved (April 2022)

Future

Was explanation for dental anxiety recorded ?

Plan further PDSA cycles with a view to implementing the project regionally and nationally and-phobia#causes-of-dental-anxiety-and-phobia.