Know More About Dental Health - Journal of Dental Research and Practice

The connection between community oral health and public mental health: the effects of dental anxiety and dread on dental status.

It's common for people to feel dental anxiety. Fear of dental care decreased utilization of dental services, and oral health conditions all reinforce one another through a "vicious cycle dynamic." To break this loop, research on the causes of dental anxiety could be important in developing community initiatives that effectively combat the condition's effects on oral health. This is where models like the Cognitive Vulnerability Model, which examines the interaction between cognitive and psychosocial causes of fear, are promising. Focusing on children could help us understand the mechanics behind dental fear and stop it from progressing into adulthood because dental fear frequently begins in childhood.

Mental illnesses and undiagnosed psychological issues may have an impact on one's physical health and prevent one from receiving necessary medical care. On the other hand, it appears that physical issues raise the chance of developing mental health issues. Dental fear issues have also been linked to this "vicious cycle dynamic." Dental anxiety can prevent people from receiving the regular medical care they need, increasing their chance of developing diseases of the mouth. Additionally, when untreated oral symptoms worsen over time, this can reinforce their fear of dental operations.

We contend that dental fear should be a concern for public mental health due to its significant prevalence in both adult and child populations and its detrimental effects on health. Insights on the interaction between community dentistry and public mental health are presented, drawing on prior studies. According to our viewpoint, a multidisciplinary strategy could be helpful to reduce dental anxiety and promote oral health in child and adult populations with interrelated goals.

Dental Care in the Community and Public Mental Health

Population oral health can have a substantial impact on public mental health. As previously said, dental fear can prevent people from receiving dental care, and this psychological issue may ultimately become a health risk. Addressing dental fear issues in children in particular seems to be a priority endeavor, not only because of the emotional and health repercussions but also because dental fear in children is typically the forerunner to dental fear issues in adults. For instance, Locker et al. discovered that almost 50% of dental-phobic people said their fear started in childhood, while 27 and 23% said their phobia started in adolescence and adulthood, respectively.

According to research, dental treatment-related cognitive factors, such as ideas, beliefs, appraisals, and expectations about the provision of dental care, have a significant impact on dental dread. Indeed, compared to other factors associated with this issue, cognitive factors have been demonstrated to be the strongest predictors of a person's level of dental dread. Specifically, the Cognitive Vulnerability Model has found a cognitive schema that consists of four interconnected assessments related to dental fear. This paradigm describes how persons who have dental anxiety perceive dental occurrences as potentially hazardous, unmanageable, unpredictable, and repulsive.

Overall, studies using this model have supported the notion that a cognitive vulnerability schema underlies dental fear in both adults and children, with perceptions of cognitive vulnerability accounting for just under half of the variance in dental fear scores above and beyond that explained by demographic factors and traumatic dental experiences. Even though it is obvious that having negative thoughts about dental procedures increases the likelihood of developing dental phobia and having poorer oral health, research in public mental health is still needed to determine the prevalence of these cognitions in the general population.