Dental professional recognition of dental anxiety from a patient perspective: a grounded theory study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2340/aos.v83.42447Keywords:
Dental anxiety, dental staff, identification, patients perspective, qualitative studyAbstract
Objective: To explore patients’ experiences of dental staff recognising their dental anxiety.
Material and Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 adults who identified themselves as dentally anxious. The sampling of study participants was purposive, and the audio-recorded interviews were transcribed verbatim. Classical grounded theory and constant comparative analysis were used to analyse the interview data inductively. Theoretical saturation was reached after eight interviews.
Results: Hope for ‘Fingerspitzengefühl’ from the dental staff emerged as the core category, which means having an intuitive instinct about a situation and knowing how to react to it. It also is tact or sensitivity that comes with experience. The foundation for this core was four categories: Dental anxiety causes involuntary signals, Strategies to minimise contact, Seen and respected by the staff, and Recognisable strategies. The interviewees hoped that the dental staff would notice their dental anxiety and understand their feelings of shame, and take relevant actions to alleviate their anxiety.
Conclusions: Dentally anxious patients often struggle to express their anxiety but hope to find a dentist with Fingerspitzengefühl. The result cannot be generalised but transferred to a similar population.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Markus Höglund, Inger Wårdh, Shervin Shahnavaz, Carina Berteröf
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Acta Odontologica Scandinavica publishes original research papers as well as critical reviews relevant to the diagnosis, epidemiology, health service, prevention, aetiology, pathogenesis, pathology, physiology, microbiology, development and treatment of diseases affecting tissues of the oral cavity and associated structures including papers on cause and effect or explanatory/associative relationships for experimental or observational studies.
